Tuesday 15 November 2011

ICC PROSECUTOR TO REQUEST ARREST WARRANT FOR SUDAN DEFENCE MINISTER: REPORT


Sudanese Defence Minister Abdel-Rahim
Mohamed Hussein (Reuters)

The prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) will soon request an arrest warrant for Sudanese defence minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, the website of Al-Arabiya TV reported.
This will be the fourth case by the Hague-based tribunal on Darfur case since the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) referred the case to the ICC under a Chapter VII resolution.
The most high-profile case to date is that against Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir who has refused to recognize the court’s jurisdiction and vowed not to surrender any suspect.
In addition to the case against Bashir, ICC is also seeking the arrest of two government figures namely South Kordofan governor Ahmed Haroun and militia leader Ali Kushayb for 51 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The court has secured the appearance of three rebel leaders accused of an attack on African peacekeepers. Bahr Idriss Abu Garda has been cleared during the confirmation of charges hearings last year. The other two Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus are awaiting trial though they don’t intend to contest carrying out the assault according to court documents.
“Investigators at the ICC Prosecutor’s Office have been collecting evidence against the Sudanese Defense Minister for a while now and these will be submitted to the pre-trial judges, once the indictment is announced, as our sources indicated, around Nov. 17 or 18 or the week starting Nov. 21” Al-Arabiya reporter in New York wrote.
The report did not give any specifics about the case being brought against the defense minister.
Hussein was the former minister of the interior and representative of the president for Darfur during the height of the conflict in the region 2003-2004.
Mainly non-Arab rebels from Darfur took up arms against Sudan’s government in 2003, accusing it of marginalising the remote western territory.
Khartoum mobilised troops and mostly-Arab militias to crush the uprising, unleashing a wave of violence that the UN estimates has killed 300,000 people and which Washington has described as genocide. Khartoum dismisses the accusation and puts the death toll at 10,000.

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