ICC prosecutor requests arrest warrant for Sudan’s defense minister

December 02, 2011 (NAIROBI) – The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has asked the court’s judges to issue a warrant of arrest for Sudan’s defense minister Abdul Rahim Mohamed Hussein.

In a statement issued on Friday, Ocamp’s office said Hussein was suspected of committing “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” in the country’s western region of Darfur.

If the judges agree to Ocampo’s request, Hussien will be the fourth Sudanese official to be indicted by the Hague-based court in connection to Darfur conflict.

The ICC has already issued arrest warrants for the governor of Sudan’s border state of South Kordofan and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushib.

But the most high-profile suspect is Sudan’s president Omer Al-Bashir who is accused by the ICC of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.

Hussein is one of the closest aides of Sudan’s president Al-Bashir and has shuttled between several powerful positions since Al-Bashir took power in an Islamist-backed military coup in 1989.

He was serving as minister of interior during the zenith of Darfur’s conflict in 2003-2004. Hussein was appointed to his current position in September 2005.

The prosecutor’s statement said that Hussein and Haroun acting as his right-hand man at the time “played a central role in coordinating the crimes, including in recruiting, mobilizing, funding, arming, training and the deployment of the Militia/Janjaweed as part of the Government of the Sudan forces, with the knowledge that these forces would commit the crimes.”

Sudan has refused to hand over any suspect to the ICC and designates the court as a Western conspiracy.

The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 after ethnic rebels took up arms against the government.

(ST)