The International Criminal Court has asked Sudan to hand over one of the key people accused of war crimes and genocide in Darfur and an ally of ousted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the visiting chief ICC prosecutor said yesterday.
The accused, Ahmed Haroun, asked in May to be sent to The Hague, the court’s headquarters, complaining that he would not receive a fair trial in Sudan.
Chief ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told a news conference that Bashir, in prison in Khartoum, was still wanted by the ICC and that the court was willing to negotiate with the Sudanese government on where his trial should be held.
Bashir had for years resisted ICC warrants against him and four allies, including Haroun, over the conflict in Sudan’s western region that killed an estimated 300,000 people and drove 2.5mn from their homes.
They face charges at The Hague of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for atrocities committed by pro-government forces in Darfur beginning in 2002. The military-civilian transitional government that replaced Bashir in 2019 has said it will cooperate with the court. ICC investigators will travel to Darfur to continue speaking with victims of the violence, Bensouda said.
She said she did not sense any opposition from Sudanese officials over handing over Haroun, which she said would need to happen before July so that he could be tried alongside defendant Ali Kushayb, who handed himself over to the court last year.
Fatou Bensouda, International Criminal Court chief prosecutor, speaks during a presser at the Ministry of Justice in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, yesterday.
