Overview
- Judges said Ali Muhammad Ali Abd‑Al‑Rahman personally beat detainees, including with an axe, and issued execution orders during 2003–2004 attacks in Darfur.
- Prosecutors sought a life term and described him as an “axe murderer,” while the defense claimed mistaken identity and urged a much shorter sentence.
- The chamber cited his 2020 voluntary surrender, age, and time already spent in detention as mitigating factors, with credit granted toward the 20‑year term.
- Presiding Judge Joanna Korner said victims described a campaign of “extermination, humiliation and displacement,” rejecting Abd‑Al‑Rahman’s expressions of remorse as insincere.
- The decision comes as Sudan’s war with the RSF—rooted in the Janjaweed—drives mass displacement, and ICC prosecutors have indicated they are preparing new arrest warrants.