Chief Prosecutor of International Criminal Court Names First Darfur War Suspects

On Tuesday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced the first suspects in the case involving the situation in Darfur. The Prosecution claims [ICC-OTP press release] to have found reasonable grounds to believe that Ali Kushayb, leader of the pro-government janjaweed militia, and Ahmad Harun, former Sudanese interior minister, have jointly committed crimes against humanity and war crimes. By accusing senior figures of Sudan of international crimes, the Prosecution follows its policy to focus investigation and prosecution efforts on the big fish.

Tuesday's announcement came two years after the UN Security Council had referred the situation in Darfur, Sudan, to the prosecutor of the ICC [Security Council press release]. Besides Darfur, the following three situations have been referred to the prosecutor of the ICC: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic.

A Pre-Trial Chamber of the ICC now has to review the evidence submitted by the Prosecution. If the judges find that there is indeed reasonable grounds to believe that Kushayb and Harun committed the alleged crimes, they have to decide how to further proceed, specifically, how to ensure Kushayb's and Harun's appearance in court. This raises the important question of execution of arrest warrants issued by the ICC. The ICC lacks its own enforcement mechanism and therefore has to rely on state cooperation. Hence, what if a state is either unable or even unwilling to execute an arrest warrant issued by the ICC?

The chief prosecutor of the ICC has recently called on academics and practitioners to publish on the topic of international criminal prosecution [Jurist Forum].