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Sudanese
Defence Minister Abdel-Rahim
Mohamed
Hussein (Reuters)
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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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