Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court on Monday demanded that a Sudanese militia leader be jailed for life for crimes against humanity during the country’s civil war two decades ago.
The court found Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known by the nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, guilty of committing numerous crimes against humanity and war crimes, including gang rape, murder and torture, in the West Darfur region between 2003 and 2004.
“You literally have an ax murderer in front of you. This is the stuff of nightmares,” prosecutor Julian Nicholls told magistrates.
“Only a life sentence will serve the interest of retribution and deterrence.”
Abd-Al-Rahman has consistently denied being a high-ranking official in the Janjaweed militia, a largely Arab paramilitary force armed by the Sudanese government to kill mainly black African tribes in Darfur two decades ago.
However, during her sentencing, ICC judge Joanna Korner described how on one occasion Abd-Al-Rahman loaded about 50 civilians into trucks, beat some with axes, before leaving them lying on the ground and ordering his soldiers to shoot them dead.
Korner insisted that the militiaman was “personally involved in the beating and was later physically present giving orders to execute the detainees.”
Abd-Al-Rahman, who was born around 1949, insisted he “wasn’t Ali Kushayb” and that the court had the wrong man – an argument the judges rejected.
His defense attorneys, who are seeking a seven-year prison sentence, will present their case later this week.
Abd-Al-Rahman fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 when the new Sudanese government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC investigation.
He said he then turned himself in because he was “desperate” and feared the authorities would kill him.
Fighting broke out in Sudan’s Darfur region when non-Arab tribes, complaining of systematic discrimination, took up arms against the Arab-dominated government.
Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, a force drawn from the region’s nomadic tribes.
The United Nations reports that 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million others displaced in the Darfur conflict in 2000.
ICC prosecutors hope to issue new arrest warrants related to the current crisis in Sudan.
Tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF), which traces its origins to the Janjaweed militia.
The conflict, marked by claims of atrocities on all sides, has left the northeast African country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
