ICC drops case against AU peacekeepers' alleged attacker

International Criminal Court (ICC) judges reluctantly dropped a case against a fugitive Sudanese rebel accused of attacking African Union peacekeepers in Darfur nearly 20 years ago, reports TimesLIVE. This after prosecutors said they could no longer prove their case at trial. Judges were unusually critical of prosecutors at the global court in a written decision made public approving their request to drop charges against Abdallah Banda, who faced three war crimes counts related to his alleged involvement in a deadly 2007 attack on a peacekeeping camp in northern Darfur. In a written statement, the court said that judges ’found that the prosecution had not demonstrated that the evidence supporting the confirmed charges deteriorated to an extent such that the case could no longer proceed to trial’. But the judges ruled that ‘proceeding to trial in this particular case, with a prosecutor who refuses to present the case despite evidentiary and legal obligations to do so, would be in contravention of the chamber’s ultimate obligation to ensure a fair and efficient trial’. Prosecutors acknowledged that their request would have an impact on 103 victims in the case ‘who have been waiting for over 15 years for justice for the crimes committed during the attack’ on the peacekeepers. However, they argued that they suffered setbacks, including two key witnesses who are no longer considered credible and a new witness who came forward with testimony that could help to clear Banda. Two decades ago, Sudan’s Darfur region became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as central or east African. Up to 300 000 people were killed and 2.7m were driven from their homes.