Oct 19, 2020(Nyamilepedia) — The Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok has pledged to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in its case against the former president Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
While receiving the General Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Fatou Bensouda, who is visiting Sudan for the first time, the Sudanese Primer Minister stressed that justice is one of the core principles of the current transitional leadership.
In attendance were the Minister of Cabinet Affairs Omer Monis and Minister of Justice Nasr al-Din Abdel-Bari.
The Prime minister issued a statement after the meeting saying the historic visit of the ICC delegation is a testimony of the total reform of the new Sudan, a country that had previously refused to cooperate with the international criminal Court.
“This historical visit is a testimony of the total reform of the new Sudan. Our commitment to achieving justice is not only an international one, but a direct response to deliver on the slogans of the December revolution” Prime Minister Hamdok tweeted on his twitter handle.
استقبلتُ اليوم المُدعية العامة للمحكمة الجنائية الدُّولية، السيدة فاتو بنسودا.هذه الزيارة التاريخية تأكيد للتغيير الكبير الذي حدث ويستمر ببلادنا.
التزامنا بإنجاز العدالة لمواطنينا ليس نتيجة تعهداتنا الدولية فحسب، بل استجابة مباشرة لتطلعات شعبنا لتحقيق شعارات ثورة ديسمبر المجيدة. pic.twitter.com/sFZh3WuPKk
— Abdalla Hamdok (@SudanPMHamdok) October 18, 2020
The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Bashir on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in connection with the unrest in the western Darfur region in 2003.
The former president reacted by sending in the Janjaweed militias, which are accused of killing up to 300,000 people and driving as many as 2.5 million people from their homes.
The International Criminals Court delegation is also seeking information on two of al-Bashir’s associates, former minister Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein and his former deputy Ahmed Haroun. Both men were detained after al-Bashir’s overthrow.
The ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda arrived in Sudan on Saturday. She has been briefing the Sudanese officials about the work of prosecution and the ICC’s jurisdiction since Sunday as the court needs to ensure that all the ICC indicted of war crimes in Darfur would be brought to justice.
She said alluding to the principle of complementarity.
The second purpose of her visit is to agree on ways to cooperate with the Sudanese authorities in collecting information related to the case of EX-senior Janjaweed Commander Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, popularly known as Ali Kushayb, who surrendered himself in June 2020.
She also held separate meetings with the Sudanese Justice Minister to discuss all these issues before meeting Hamdok and the deputy head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamadan Hemetti.
Speaking after the meeting, she said she wanted to obtain full commitment of all the Sudanese authorities to cooperate with the court to achieve justice in Darfur.
