Sudan lawyers syndicate vows to defeat Darfur hybrid court proposal

November 3, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – The proposal made by an African Union (AU) panel to establish special courts for Darfur violates the Sudanese constitution, Fathi Khalil the head of the Sudanese bar association said today.

Khalil told the pro-government Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website that the role of his union “is to defend the independence and unity of judiciary and the rule of law”.

He asserted that the constitution prohibits participation of foreigners in prosecuting Sudanese nationals.

The AU high level panel on Darfur (AUPD) concluded last month that the Sudanese criminal justice response to Darfur was “ineffective and confusing” and that it “failed to obtain the confidence of the people of Darfur”.

“It will therefore require changes to be introduced within the Sudanese legal system to provide effective accountability for the different levels of criminal participation” the report of the AUPD stated.

The commission called for a “hybrid Criminal Court which shall exercise original and appellate jurisdiction over individuals who appear to bear particular responsibility for the gravest crimes committed during the conflict in Darfur, and to be constituted by judges of Sudanese and other nationalities”.

The 2nd Vice president of Sudan Ali Osman Taha delivered a response to the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) summit in Abuja last week effectively rejecting the hybrid court proposal.

Taha said that the Sudanese law and competence of judiciary “provides the necessary framework to achieve justice”.

The Sudanese bar association chief argued that the proposal “is not available even in any African country including the one that took part in crafting the report”. It is not clear if he was referring to South Africa as the AUPD chief is its former president Thabo Mbeki.

Khalil pledged to resist the proposal until it is “aborted” saying that is needed to “preserve the prestige of Sudanese judiciary”.

This week a senior official from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of standing behind the hybrid court proposal.

A political analyst in Khartoum told Sudan Tribune that he believes that Khalil “was nudged by the Sudanese government to come out with these remarks”.

“The Sudanese lawyers union is owned by the government and what he [Khalil] says reflects its views. The government simply does not want to publicly reject the hybrid court so it is pushing its proxies to say it” he said.

“Khartoum is trying to buy time by making conflicting remarks on their final position on the special courts and may even pretend to accept. In reality they will never allow it and if pressured they will try to water its powers from how Mbeki originally designed it so that it becomes ineffective and without meaning,” he added.

Mbeki told reporters this week that Khartoum accepted hybrid court but that it would need further discussions with the AU especially where it concerned the hybrid court.

“They will look at what the Sudanese constitution allows with regards to that because this will be a precedence that has not been tried on the African continent before,” he said.

Despite the opposition made by Khartoum to the AU report, observers express skepticism that the pan-African body will be willing to exert pressure on Sudan to implement it.

(ST)