Darfur Situation: Trial Chamber IV terminates proceedings against Saleh Jerbo

Situation: Darfur, Sudan
Case: The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus

Today, 4 October 2013, Trial Chamber IV of the International Criminal Court (ICC), seized of the case The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus, issued its decision terminating the proceedings against Saleh Jerbo. The Chamber highlighted that, despite the absence of an official death certificate, the evidence it received pointed towards the death of Mr Jerbo on 19 April 2013. The proceedings against Abdallah Banda will continue and the trial is scheduled to start on 5 May 2014.

The Chamber recalled that the purpose of criminal proceedings is to determine individual criminal responsibility and that, in the present circumstances, it is appropriate to terminate the case against Mr Jerbo without prejudice to resume such proceedings should information become available that he is alive.

Background
On 7 March 2011, Pre-Trial Chamber I unanimously decided to confirm the charges of war crimes brought by the ICC’s Prosecutor against Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus. Pre-Trial Chamber I found substantial grounds to believe that Abdallah Banda and Saleh Jerbo are criminally responsible as co-perpetrators for three war crimes:

• violence to life and attempted violence to life;
• intentionally directing attacks against personnel, installations, material, units and vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission; and
• pillaging.

These crimes were allegedly committed during an attack led by Abdallah Banda and Saleh Jerbo and other commanders and directed against the compound of the African Union Mission in Sudan at Haskanita on the evening of 29 September 2007. The Chamber found substantial grounds to believe that the attack was directed to personnel, installations, material, units and vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations which were entitled to the protection afforded to civilians and civilian objects.

The situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC by United Nations Security Council resolution 1593 on 31 March 2005, under article 13(b) of the Rome Statute.

Public redacted Decision terminating the proceedings against Mr Jerbo

For further information, please contact Fadi El Abdallah, Spokesperson and Head of Public Affairs Unit, International Criminal Court, by telephone at: +31 (0)70 515-9152 or +31 (0)6 46448938 or by e-mail at: [email protected].

You can also follow the Court’s activities on YouTube and Twitter.