Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court have asked judges to impose a life sentence on Sudanese militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, saying the severity of his crimes in Darfur more than twenty years ago warrants the court’s maximum punishment.
The sentencing hearings opened Tuesday in The Hague, one month after Abd-Al-Rahman was found guilty of 27 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
The request marks a historic moment for the court. Abd-Al-Rahman, widely known as Ali Kushayb, is the first person convicted by the ICC for atrocities committed in Darfur, where government-backed Janjaweed fighters carried out a campaign of killings, rapes, and village burnings in 2003 and 2004.
On Monday, lead prosecutor Julian Nicholls urged judges to deliver a life sentence, describing Abd-Al-Rahman as an “enthusiastic, energetic and effective perpetrator” of violence directed at civilians. Addressing the bench, Nicholls added, “You literally have an axe murderer before you,” alleging that Abd-Al-Rahman killed two victims with an axe during attacks on villages in western Darfur.
“Only a life sentence will serve the interest of retribution and deterrence,” he said.
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Defense lawyers have requested a much lighter penalty of seven years and are presenting their arguments over two days.
Judges convicted Abd-Al-Rahman in June on charges including mass murders, sexual violence, persecution, and forcible displacement. The verdict followed a trial that began in April 2022 after the suspect surrendered to the ICC two years earlier.
Throughout the proceedings, Abd-Al-Rahman denied holding a senior role in the Janjaweed, a largely Arab militia armed and supported by the Sudanese government during the early 2000s conflict. He has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors confused him with the real Ali Kushayb, a defense rejected by the judges.
According to court testimony, Abd-Al-Rahman fled Sudan for the Central African Republic in 2020 after the country’s transitional authorities signaled their intention to cooperate with the ICC. He told the court he turned himself in because he feared being killed.
The roots of the Darfur crisis stretch back to 2003, when non-Arab groups launched an armed rebellion accusing Khartoum of discrimination and marginalization. The government responded by mobilizing Janjaweed fighters drawn from nomadic Arab tribes.
The United Nations estimates that 300,000 people were killed and another 2.5 million displaced during the 2000s conflict.
