THE HAGUE: Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court on Monday asked for a life sentence for a leader of the feared Janjaweed militia convicted of playing a major role in a campaign of atrocities committed in the Sudanese region of Darfur more than 20 years ago — including ordering mass executions and bludgeoning two prisoners to death with an ax.
“You literally have an axe murderer before you,” prosecutor Julian Nicholls told judges in The Hague as Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, looked on.
Last month, Abd–Al-Rahman was convicted of 27 counts, including mass murders and rapes, for leading Janjaweed militia forces that went on a campaign of killing and destruction in 2003-2004. It was the first time the court had convicted a suspect of crimes in Darfur.
“He committed these crimes knowingly, willfully, and with, the evidence shows, enthusiasm and vigor,” Nicholls said.
Abd–Al-Rahman pleaded innocent to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity when his trial opened in April 2022 and argued he was not the person known as Ali Kushayb. The judges rejected that defense, saying he even identified himself by his name and nickname in a video when he surrendered.
The defense will take the floor later in the week and has asked for a seven-year sentence, which would allow the 76-year-old to be released in the next 18 months, considering time served.
Abd–Al-Rahman surrendered to authorities in the Central African Republic, near the border with Sudan, in 2020.
Rebels from Darfur’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in the capital, Khartoum.
Then-President Omar al-Bashir’s government responded with a scorched-earth campaign of aerial bombings and raids by the Janjaweed, who often attacked at dawn, sweeping into villages on horseback or camelback.
Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes in Darfur over the years. Al-Bashir has been charged by the ICC with crimes including genocide, but he has not been handed over to face justice in The Hague, despite being ousted from power and detained.
The sentencing hearing comes as Sudan has plunged into further violence. Last week, the U.N.’s top human rights body held a one-day special session to highlight hundreds of killings at a hospital in Sudan’s Darfur region and other atrocities blamed on paramilitary forces fighting the army in the northeast African country.
The military and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, went to war in 2023, when tensions erupted between them. The army and RSF are former allies that were supposed to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising.
The latest fighting has killed at least 40,000 people, according to the World Health Organization, and displaced 12 million others.
ICC prosecutors seek life sentence for Janjaweed leader convicted of Darfur crimes
https://arab.news/wzhnn
ICC prosecutors seek life sentence for Janjaweed leader convicted of Darfur crimes
- Abd–Al-Rahman was convicted of 27 counts, including mass murders and rapes, for leading Janjaweed militia forces that went on a campaign of killing and destruction in 2003-2004
Las Vegas police investigate terrorism event after vehicle rammed into power substation
LAS VEGAS: Las Vegas police say they’re investigating a car that rammed into a power substation as a ” terrorism-related event.”
There’s no ongoing threat to the public, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said during a news conference Friday.
The driver of the vehicle was 23-year-old Dawson Maloney from Albany, New York, who was reported missing and died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, McMahill said.
The man had communicated with family before the crash, referencing self-harm, and said he was going to commit an act that would place him on the news. He referred to himself as a terrorist in a message sent to his mother, according to police.
Authorities found explosive materials and multiple books “related to extremist ideologies” in Maloney’s hotel room, McMahill said. The books included ones about right- and left-wing extremism, environmental extremism, white supremacism and anti-government ideology, he said.
“These findings significantly elevate the seriousness of this incident,” McMahill said.
Maloney is listed as a student at Albany Law School in the class of 2027. He was also an honors student for multiple semesters at Siena University, located in New York.
Two shotguns, an assault rifle-style pistol, and flame throwers were found in his rental car, McMahill said. Maloney was wearing what police described as “soft-body armor.”
Authorities recovered a 3D printer and several gun components needed to assemble a firearm from an Albany residence.
Boulder City is a historic town located approximately 25 miles southeast of Las Vegas and home to the Hoover Dam, which is considered one of the country’s modern civil engineering wonders. The dam provides water to millions of people and generates an average of 4 billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power each year for Nevada, Arizona and California.
The power substation that was rammed is owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The facility works closely with Hoover Dam and transfers power to the Los Angeles basin, McMahill said. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said in a statement to The Associated Press that it is aware of the incident, and there were no impacts or disruptions to its operations.
Boulder City Police Chief Timothy Shea said there is no evidence of major damage to critical infrastructure and no service disruptions.
A similar incident occurred in 2023 when a man rammed a car through a fence at a solar power facility in the desert northeast of Las Vegas, setting the car on fire. The solar power facility served Las Vegas Strip casinos. He was declared unfit for trial. That attack followed several incidents and arrests involving electrical substations in states including Washington, Oregon and North Carolina and concerns expressed by federal officials about the security of the nation’s electricity transmission network.
“We are heartbroken to hear of the tragic passing of one of our law students, Dawson Maloney, in an off-campus incident,” said Tom Torello, director of communications and marketing at Albany Law School, in a statement.
