Banda and Jerbo trial to start on 5 May 2014
Situation: Darfur, Sudan
Case: The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus
Today, 6 March 2013, Trial Chamber IV of the International Criminal Court (ICC) set the date for the commencement of the trial in the case The Prosecutor v. Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus for 5 May 2014.
The Chamber, composed of Judge Joyce Aluoch, Presiding, Judge Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi and Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, considered that the trial cannot start before necessary measures are put in place to ensure that, to the extent possible, any risk of interruptions to the trial proceedings is minimized. Such measures include, inter alia, witness protection and training for Zaghawa interpreters, to respect the accused’s rights to follow the trial in a language that they understand fully, as well as practical arrangements in coordination with the Host State (the Netherlands) for the accused to stay in the country during their trial. The Chamber recalled that the accused are not subject to arrest warrants and that the accused shall continue to be bound by the conditions set in the summonses to appear that have been issued for them by the ICC.
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.
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.