The prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has requested a life sentence for a former commander in the Sudanese Janjaweed militia, convicted of crimes against humanity during the war that ravaged the country nearly 20 years ago.
The court had found Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman, also known by his nom de guerre Ali Kushayb, guilty of committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, including mass rape, murder, and torture in the Darfur region of western Sudan between 2003 and 2004.
Prosecutor Julian Nichols told the judges, “Before you stands a butcher—this is a true nightmare,” adding that “only a life sentence can deliver justice and deterrence.”
Abd al-Rahman has long denied being a former Janjaweed commander—militias composed mostly of Arab pastoralists armed by the Sudanese government to kill members of ethnic minority groups in Darfur two decades ago. However, during a sentencing hearing, presiding judge Joanna Korner recounted horrific details of abuses and mass killings.
She stated that on one occasion, Abd al-Rahman loaded 50 civilians onto trucks, beat some of them with axes, forced them to lie on the ground, and ordered his forces to shoot and kill them.
She added, “The defendant did not merely issue orders; he personally took part in the beatings and was later present when he ordered the execution of detainees.”
Born in 1949, the defendant has consistently denied being the wanted man, telling the ICC during a December 2024 session, “I am not Ali Kushayb, I do not know this person, and I have no connection to the charges brought against me.” But Korner said the court was “satisfied that the defendant is indeed the person known as Ali Kushayb.”
Defense lawyers—who are requesting a seven-year sentence—will present their arguments later this week. Abd al-Rahman fled to the Central African Republic in February 2020 after Sudan’s new government announced its intention to cooperate with the ICC. Four months later, he surrendered because he was desperate and feared being killed by the authorities.
The war in Darfur broke out when members of ethnic minority groups took up arms against the Khartoum government. In response, the central authorities formed militias largely composed of Arab pastoralists in the region, known as the Janjaweed. The conflict resulted in the deaths of 300,000 people and the displacement of 2.5 million, according to the United Nations.
ICC prosecutors are also seeking new arrest warrants related to the current crisis in Sudan, where war between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces—an offshoot of the Janjaweed—has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of 12 million people, in addition to creating the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN.
