Sudan initiates investigation into Darfur crimes

Khartoum [Sudan], Dec 23 (ANI): Sudan has initiated an investigation into crimes committed in the Darfur region by members of the government of former president Omar al-Bashir, the state prosecutor said on Sunday.
Attorney General Taj Al-Sir Ali Al-Hebr said that a criminal case has also been opened against former president Omar al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity in Darfur, Xinhua reported.
"We have started investigation procedures on the crimes which have been committed in Darfur since 2003," Al-Hebr said at a press conference in Khartoum.
He said that the General Prosecution has filed a criminal case against al-Bashir and former defence minister Abdel-Rahim Mohamed Hussein besides 51 other defendants accused of committing crimes in Darfur.
Al-Hebr disclosed that the prosecution has started legal procedures to bring back former chief of National Intelligence and Security Service Salah Abdallah from Egypt.
He further stressed that all leaders of the former regime will face criminal cases with punishments including death penalties, noting that perpetrators of such crimes cannot be released on bail.
Sudan's Darfur region has been witnessing a civil war since 2003. The conflict between pro-government forces and ethnic minority rebels left around 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the United Nations.
On March 4, 2009, the Hague-based International Criminal Court had issued an arrest warrant against al-Bashir for allegedly committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region.
In 2010, a charge of genocide was added to the arrest warrant.
Sudan's new transitional government, brought to power after the protest movement toppled al-Bashir, has vowed to establish peace in conflict-hit regions, including Darfur.
On December 14, al-Bashir was sentenced by a court in Khartoum to two years' detention in a correctional centre for corruption in the first of several cases against him. (ANI)