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Responding to news that former Sudan president Omar Al-Bashir is being detained in Kober prison in Khartoum, Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes, said:
“Omar Al-Bashir stands accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, and must be immediately handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for due process to be followed. His case must not be hurriedly tried in Sudan’s notoriously dysfunctional legal system. Justice must be served.
“An ICC trial is not only vital for the victims of the atrocious crimes that led to his indictment but must constitute a first step in ensuring justice and accountability in the country. Sudan must take urgent steps to rebuild its justice sector but, in the meantime, the only way victims of his alleged crimes will see progress towards justice are if Bashir faces a fair trial at the ICC”.
Meanwhile the authorities in Sudan must ensure that Al-Bashir, along with all other people arrested and detained since the military coup, are protected from torture and other ill-treatment that have been typical of imprisonment in Sudan.
“More than a decade after the first arrest warrant was issued against him in 2009, the time has come for Al-Bashir to face justice at the ICC,” said Joan Nyanyuki.
The ICC has issued two arrest warrants for Al-Bashir on the basis that there are reasonable grounds to believe that, along with war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, extermination and rape, he has committed genocide against the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
Amnesty International has cautioned countries against sabotaging justice for victims of the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide that Al-Bashir is accused of by offering him asylum.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Amnesty International.
