In a report delivered Tuesday to the UN Security Council, the ICC has expanded its list of suspects charged with crimes against humanity for the atrocities in Darfur. According to lead prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, much of the government of Sudan is responsible for the crimes—he plans to release the names of individual suspects in the the coming weeks.
“There are evidence of a criminal plan based on the mobilization of the whole state apparatus, including the armed forces, the intelligence services, the diplomatic and public information bureaucracies, and the justice system,” the report noted.
This announcement comes more than a year after the ICC first indicted its first two suspects for crimes in Darfur. Since then, suspects Ali Kushayb and Humanitarian Affairs Minister of State Ahmad Harun continue to evade arrest and extradition from Sudan with the government making clear it intends to give up neither suspect. The ICC report also outlined many of the obstacles the Sudanese government has utilized to prevent prosecuting Kushayb and Harun.
The Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations responded to the report by calling it “fictitious and vicious” and alleges that the indictments will undermine the peace process in Sudan.
To learn more about the ICC’s involvement in prosecuting crimes against humanity in Darfur, please visit our Darfur education page.