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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has ordered a 20-year jail term against Sudanese Janjaweed militia, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahma, for war crimes against humanity committed during Sudan’s civil war 20 years ago.
The presiding judge, Joanna Korner, who passed the sentence, stated: “Abd-Al-Rahman personally perpetrated beatings, including with an axe, and gave orders for executions.”
The prosecutors had earlier sought his life imprisonment in court last month after a hearing, where he was convicted of 27 counts of crimes against humanity, including mass murders and rapes, also for leading Janjaweed militia forces on a campaign of killing and destruction in 2003-2004.
He was said to have surrendered in the Central African Republic in June 2020 and was transferred to ICC custody shortly afterwards.
Korner added that his voluntary surrender was one of several factors that mitigated the sentence, along with his age and good behaviour in detention.
“The chamber would have pronounced a higher sentence had it not been for the mitigating circumstances discussed above”.
His trial, which opened in April 2022, featured testimony from prosecution witnesses, statements from the victim’s representatives, and defence witnesses before closing arguments in December 2024.
In a closing statement, she added that the ICC aimed to ensure both retribution and deterrence; hence, the time he had already spent in detention since June 2020 would be deducted from the sentence.
