International Criminal Court Convicts Sudanese Militia Leader of War Crimes

 The International Criminal Court found a Sudanese militia leader guilty of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur two decades ago, a rare conviction for an institution whose international standing is under threat from U.S. sanctions and sexual-assault allegations against its chief prosecutor

A panel of three judges at the ICC in The Hague convicted Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman of being a commander in the Janjaweed, a feared militia of mostly Arab fighters who terrorized civilians across the Darfur region in 2003 and 2004, in a conflict that left hundreds of thousands dead. Abd-Al-Rahman ordered his fighters to brutalize villages in the region where they engaged in mass rape and killings, the judges said Monday. Abd-Al-Rahman exhorted his soldiers with the phrase “wipe out and sweep away” before they attacked, according to the decision.

The conviction is the eighth in the ICC’s 23-year history for the core violations it prosecutes: war crimes and crimes against humanity. A handful of other defendants have been convicted of procedural violations such as obstructing justice. The court has charged 70 defendants in total, 29 of whom are still wanted under arrest warrants.

The court is now facing the biggest threat in its history with the Trump administration’s decision to sanction prosecutors and judges who were behind the court’s contentious decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The court alleges the two men committed war crimes and crimes against humanity with their conduct of the war in Gaza, a charge that both men deny.

The case against the two men has become entangled with sexual-assault allegations against Karim Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor, who went on leave in May pending the results of a United Nations investigation. A staffer, a Malaysian lawyer in her 30s, has accused Khan of engaging in coercive sex with her. Khan was first informed of the sexual-assault allegations against him three weeks before he announced his decision to seek warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

Khan denies any sexual misconduct and said the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant are based on solid evidence that has been reviewed by ICC judges.

ICC prosecutors first issued an arrest warrant for Abd-Al-Rahman in 2007, and claimed that he was a militia leader who went by the nickname Ali Kushayb. Abd-Al-Rahman surrendered to authorities in the Central African Republic in 2020, and then claimed that he wasn’t Ali Kushayb. The judges ruled that “compelling and coherent evidence,” including a videotape in which Abd-Al-Rahman says he is Ali Kushayb, showed that he was the militia leader in question.

The conviction relates to a Darfur investigation that the court opened years ago when fighting arose between rebels in the breakaway region of Sudan and armed forces allied with the Sudanese government. Two decades later, war has once again engulfed Darfur. The Janjaweed have morphed into a militia known as the Rapid Support Forces that has been accused of attacks against Darfur’s Black indigenous communities.