Sudan delays trial of Darfur suspect wanted by ICC
March 8, 2007 (EL-GENEINA) — Sudanese authorities delayed the trial of Darfur militia leader Ali Kushayb — also wanted by the International Criminal Court to face war crimes charges — after he appealed, court sources said on Thursday.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) summoned Kushayb and junior governmental minister Ahmed Haroun last week, saying it had reasonable grounds to believe they were both responsible for war crimes in Sudan’s remote west.
In a 94-page filing, ICC prosecutors accused the two of criminal responsibility related to 51 counts of alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 2003 and 2004.
But Sudan says the ICC has no jurisdiction to try its citizens for crimes in Darfur, and last month announced it would try Kushayb itself on unspecified charges related to Darfur.
Kushayb’s trial was due to start in el-Geneina in West Darfur on Wednesday, but on Thursday the courthouse was still empty and judges from Sudan’s special court for crimes in Darfur had not yet arrived.
“The attorney general has received an appeal from the lawyers of the accused, which has delayed the trial,” said one senior member of the Darfur court.
Another court source said the accused should have been given 14 days before the trial date to launch an appeal but were not given the full amount of time.
“The authorities were in a hurry because of pressure from the international court and the United Nations,” he told Reuters.
ATTACKS INCREASE
The ICC is a very sensitive subject in Sudan and many government officials fear being indicted by the court. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir swears no Sudanese national will be tried outside the country.
All of the Darfur court officials who spoke to Reuters declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject and officials from the Justice Ministry were not immediately available to comment.
Washington calls the violence which has killed an estimated 200,000 and driven 2.5 million from their homes, genocide. Khartoum denies genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use.
The Darfur special court was formed after a U.N. Security Council resolution referred Darfur’s conflict to the ICC in early 2005, the first such referral. But el-Geneina court officials said it had not convened there for a year.
Sudan has signed but not ratified the treaty which formed the ICC. The ICC cannot indict nationals who have been tried in fair and free trials in their own countries.
But observers say the Darfur proceedings will likely not invalidate the ICC summons.
“I don’t think that this is a fair court,” former Darfur leader Minni Arcua Minnawi told Reuters this week. He was the leader of only one of three negotiating rebel factions to sign a 2006 peace deal and has since taken up the fourth-ranking position at the presidency in Khartoum.
Little of the peace deal has been implemented and insecurity and attacks against aid workers, civilians and even African Union peacekeepers have only escalated.
Khartoum is under international pressure to accept U.N. troops to stem the violence, but Bashir refuses calling it an attempt to colonise Sudan.
(Reuters)