The International Criminal Court (ICC) sentenced the former leader of the Janjaweed militia, who was accused of committing atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan, Al Jazeera reported.
A 76-year-old Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, also known as Ali Kushayb, was sentenced on Tuesday after his conviction for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the report.
The ruling, which came amid fierce fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, is the first time the ICC has convicted a suspect for mass atrocities in the region.
He was convicted of 31 counts including attacks against civilians, murder, torture, rape, pillaging, destruction of property, and the prosecution and forceful transfer of population between 2003 and 2004.
The court stated that it found Rahman, the leader of the infamous militia group, actively participated in crimes of several sorts.
According to the report, Rahman denied that he was not a high-ranking official of the militia group, a largely Arab paramilitary group loyal to the Sudanese government during the civil war where many black African tribes were killed en masse.
In 2022 while his case opened, he insisted that he is not Ali Kushayb and that the court had the wrong person.
But the judges rejected his argument. The prosecutors also wanted a life sentence against him, indicating that Abd-Al-Rahman axed people to death.
