Sudan’s justice minister denies support for al-Bashir handover to ICC
November 2, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government dismissed reports saying that the Minister of Justice had called to hand over those involved in war crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Chairman of End Impunity Organisation (EIO) Osman Jameah on Friday said that they had received assurances from Justice Minister Nasr al-Din Abdelbari that those involved in human rights violations would be handed over to the ICC.
“The Minister of Justice affirmed the Ministry and the Transitional Government’s keenness to redress the victims of human rights violations and ending impunity,” said a statement released on Saturday after referring to the meeting with End Impunity group on.
With regard to the ICC wanted former officials, the minister told the delegation that the government has not adopted a policy or made a decision on the internal and external demands for their hand over.
“He told them that the government, especially the Council of Ministers, has to define a clear policy on the matter. The Minister further vowed to talk to the Council of Ministers about the need to discuss the matter and adopt a unified and clear policy,” further said the statement.
End Impunity Organisation had lodged a complaint to the Constitutional Court requested to hand over al-Bashir and other officials of the former regime to the war crimes court in The Hague.
Last September, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok said they want to try al-Bashir inside the country after building an independent judiciary.
Hamdok was referring to the ICC complementarity principle which says that the ICC can only investigate and prosecute core international crimes when national jurisdictions are unable or unwilling to do so genuinely.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda, last June, urged Sudan to hand over Omar al-to the international tribunal.
“Now is the time for the people of Sudan to choose law over the impunity and ensure that the ICC suspects in the Darfur situation finally face justice in a court of law,” Bensouda said the UN Security Council.
The ousted president is wanted by the ICC for crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Darfur.
(ST)