Judges at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced a Janjaweed militia leader to 20 years in prison for atrocities committed in Sudan’s Darfur region, including beating detainees to death with an axe.
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, was convicted in October on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, and orchestrating rape and other atrocities carried out by Janjaweed militias more than 20 years ago.
In their sentencing, judges rejected defense arguments that Abd-Al-Rahman had limited authority and expressed empathy for the victims, Reuters reported.
"Abd-Al-Rahman not only gave the orders which led directly to the crimes, but in Mukjar and Deleig also personally perpetrated some of them, using the axe he carried to beat prisoners," presiding judge Joanna Korner said.
The trial chamber imposed a joint sentence of 20 years, a term that likely means the 76-year-old will die in prison.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, describing Abd-Al-Rahman as an axe murderer for killing two detainees held in a police station and as an enthusiastic, energetic and effective perpetrator of the abuses.
His defense argued he was a victim of mistaken identity and said that any sentence beyond seven years would amount to a de facto life term, given his age.
Both prosecution and defense can appeal the conviction and the sentence but both parties said they would study the rulings before making that decision.
The ruling closes the ICC's first trial addressing the Darfur conflict, accusing it of marginalizing the remote western region.
In response, Sudan's then-government mobilized Arab militias known as the Janjaweed to crush the revolt, unleashing violence that the US and human rights groups said amounted to genocide.
The United Nations Security Council referred the case to the ICC in 2005. The Hague-based court was established to prosecute the gravest crimes when local courts fail.
Fresh clashes broke out in Darfur and across Sudan in 2023 between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, widely seen as successors to the Janjaweed.
Fighting in Darfur, particularly its city of al-Fashir, has unleashed waves of ethnically driven killings and caused mass displacement.
