Sudan will hand ousted President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court (ICC) along with other officials wanted over the Darfur conflict, Foreign Minister Mariam al-Mahdi said on Wednesday.
“The Cabinet decided to hand over the wanted persons to the ICC,” the official Sudanese news agency SUNA quoted al-Mahdi when she met the Prosecutor of the ICC, Karim Assad Khan, who is currently visiting Sudan.
The minister stressed her country’s cooperation with the court “to achieve justice for the victims of the Darfur war.”
Al-Bashir is currently in Kober prison in the Sudanese capital. He was dismissed and arrested in April 2019 following a massive popular protest movement against him.
Last week, the Sudanese cabinet approved the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, in what was considered a new step towards trying Al-Bashir before this international judicial body in The Hague.
In 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir, accusing him of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during the armed conflict in Darfur that erupted in 2003 and killed more than 300,000 people.
It also issued two arrest warrants against two of his assistants, Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Husayn and Ahmad Harun, who are also imprisoned in Kober prison.
In early May, Haroun demanded that he be referred to the ICC after appearing before a government investigation committee.
The Transitional Sovereignty Council, the current highest authority in Sudan, made up of civilians and military with the task of managing the transitional period in the country, had promised, after assuming power in February 2020, that Al-Bashir would appear before the ICC.
Al-Bashir is being tried before a Sudanese court on charges of carrying out a military coup against the regime in June 1989.
