SUDAN STARTS INVESTIGATION INTO DARFUR CRIMES

Khartoum, SUDAN

Sudan’s Attorney General Taj Al-Sir Ali Al-Hebr on Sunday announced the start of the investigation into Darfur crimes.

He said that a criminal case has also been opened against former president Omar al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur.

“We have started investigation procedures on the crimes which have been committed in Darfur since 2003,” Al-Hebr said at a press conference in Khartoum.

He said that the General Prosecution has filed a criminal case against al-Bashir and former defence minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein besides 51 other defendants accused of committing crimes in Darfur.

Al-Bebr disclosed that the prosecution has embarked on legal procedures to bring back former chief of National Intelligence and Security Service Salah Abdallah from Egypt.

He stressed that all leaders of the former regime face criminal cases whose punishment amount to death penalty, noting that perpetrators of such crimes cannot be released on bail.

Sudan’s Darfur region has been witnessing a civil war since 2003.

On March 4, 2009, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur region.

In 2010, a charge of genocide was added to the arrest warrant. - Africa