Darfur axe-murderer receives 20-year sentence

Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, on Tuesday was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the International Criminal Court, following his conviction on 27 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to DW, presiding Judge Joanna Korner said Abd-Al-Rahman ‘not only gave the orders that led directly to the crimes’ in attacks that largely targeted members of the Fur tribe seen to support a rebellion against Sudanese authorities, he ‘also personally perpetrated some of them using an axe he carried in order to beat prisoners’. Abd-Al-Rahman was the first person convicted by the ICC for atrocities in Sudan's Darfur region. Judges ruled that crimes committed by the Janjaweed militia were part of a government plan to stamp out a rebellion there. In the sentencing summary, Korner cited testimony from victims of the Janjaweed. Prosecutors had requested a life sentence for Abd-Al-Rahman and could appeal the sentence and renew their call for a life term. Abd-Al-Rahman's defence argued he was a victim of mistaken identity and that his age of 76 years meant any sentence longer than seven years would amount to a life term.