JAKARTA - Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) demanded a life sentence against a Janjawed militia leader in a case of atrocities committed in the Darfur region of Sudan, more than 20 years ago, including ordering mass executions and beating two prisoners to death with an ax.
"You are really facing the killer with a standard in front of you," prosecutor Julian Nicholls told judges in The Hague, witnessed by Ali Muhammad Ali Abd'Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb.
Last month, Abd'Al-Rahman was convicted of 27 counts, including mass killings and rapes, for leading Janjawed militia forces who carried out a assassination and destruction campaign in 2003-2004.
This is the first time the court has sentenced a suspect to a crime in Darfur.
"He committed these crimes consciously, intentionally, and, the evidence shows, with enthusiasm and enthusiasm," Nicholls said.
Abd'Al-Rahman pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity when his trial opened in April 2022 and argued he was not the person known as Ali Kushayb.
The judges rejected the defense, saying he even identified himself by his name and nickname in a video when he turned himself in.
The defense will convene this weekend and have requested a sentence of 7 years in prison, allowing the 76-year-old man to be released in the next 18 months, taking into account the sentence he has served.
Abd Al-Rahman surrendered to authorities in the Central African Republic, near the border with Sudan, in 2020.
Rebels from the ethnic communities of Central Africa and Sub-Sahara Darfur launched a uprising in 2003, complaining of the oppression carried out by Arab-dominated governments in the capital, Khartoum.
At that time, President Omar al-Bashir's government responded with scorched earth operations in the form of air bombings and raids by Janjawed, who often attacked at dawn, storming villages riding horses or camels.
Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million people were expelled from their homes in Darfur over the years.
Al-Bashir has been indicted by the ICC for crimes including genocide, but he has not been brought to trial in The Hague, despite being ousted from power and detained.
This verdict hearing was held amid rising violence in Sudan.
Last week, the UN's highest human rights body held a one-day special session to highlight hundreds of hospital killings in the Darfur region, Sudan, and other atrocities allegedly committed by paramilitary forces fighting the army in the northeastern African country.
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