ICC Seeks Life Sentence for Sudan’s “Axe Killer”

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday requested a life sentence for a senior Janjaweed militia leader convicted of playing a central role in a brutal campaign carried out in Sudan’s Darfur region more than 20 years ago.

The atrocities for which Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, known as Ali Kushayb, was convicted include ordering mass executions and killing two detainees by striking them with an axe. “Before you stands literally an axe killer,” prosecutor Julian Nicholls told the judges in The Hague.

Abd-Al-Rahman was convicted last month on 27 counts, including mass murder and rape, as part of a campaign of killing and destruction carried out by the Janjaweed militia leadership between 2003 and 2004. It was the first time the Court convicted an individual accused of committing crimes in Darfur. “He committed these crimes knowingly, intentionally, enthusiastically, and forcefully, as the evidence shows,” Nicholls said.

Abd-Al-Rahman pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity when his trial opened in April 2022, claiming he was not the man known as Ali Kushayb. Judges rejected this claim, saying he identified himself by name and nickname in a video recorded when he surrendered.

He surrendered to authorities in the Central African Republic near the Sudanese border in 2020.