Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-al-Rahman, also known as Ali Qusayb, received a combined 20-year prison sentence by the International Criminal Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Presiding Judge Joanna Korner said that Abd-al-Rahman “not only gave orders that directly led to the crimes” in large-scale targeted attacks on members of the Fur tribe supporting the rebellion against Sudanese authorities, he “also personally carried out some of them, using an ax he carried with him to beat the prisoners.”
First ICC conviction for war crimes in Darfur
Abd-al-Rahman was the first person convicted by the ICC of atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur region. Judges ruled that crimes committed by Janjaweed militia were part of a government plan to quell the insurgency there.
sentence in summaryKorner cited the testimony of Janjaweed victims: “The days of torture began at sunrise and continued with forced displacement, brutal beatings and rape, in front of the police, inside homes and in public. … Ali himself walked over the heads of people lying face down on the ground … blood was flowing in the streets … there was no medical aid, no treatment, no mercy.”
Key facts about the conflict in Darfur
- Fighting began in Darfur in 2003, when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of marginalizing the far western region.
- The government organized Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, to crush the rebellion.
- The United Nations has said 300,000 people were killed and more than 2.5 million were displaced.
- The US and human rights groups said the violence amounted to genocide.
Crimes were ‘the stuff of nightmares’
Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment for Abd-al-Rahman and could appeal the sentence and renew their demand for life imprisonment.
“You actually have an ax murderer in front of you,” prosecutor Julian Nicholls told the court. “This is the stuff of nightmares.”
Abd-al-Rahman’s defense argued that he was the victim of mistaken identity and that his age of 76 meant that any sentence of more than seven years would be tantamount to life imprisonment.
Abd al-Rahman fled Sudan for the Central African Republic in 2020 after a new government said it would cooperate with the ICC investigation. He later surrendered to authorities, a move Korner said was a result of his age and good behavior while in custody, as well as a reduced sentence. Abd-al-Rahman’s time spent in custody, both before and during the trial, will be deducted from the sentence.
The ICC, which prosecutes individuals for the world’s worst crimes, can impose life sentences but has never done so.
Darfur again the center of Sudan’s fight
In 2023, renewed fighting broke out across Sudan between the army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, widely seen as the Janjaweed’s successor.
The fighting in Darfur, particularly in the city of al-Fashar, has led to a spate of ethnically based killings and mass displacement.
The latest alleged atrocities are “part of a broader pattern of violence that has affected the entire Darfur region” and “may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity,” the ICC said in a statement, noting that the evidence could be used in future prosecutions.
Edited by: Jennifer Cimino Gonzalez