Sudan President among those ICC indicted

Since its establishment in 2002 to prosecute suspects of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression, the International Criminal Court has indicted about 14 people.

Of these, five are Ugandan, four from the Democratic Republic of Congo, four from Sudan and one from the Central African Republic.

All have been indicted on the basis of crimes committed by those under their command. Two have died and seven, among them a sitting president, are on the run.

If the ICC eventually goes ahead to indict Kenyans, the country’s map will find pride of place on the section of the court’s website reserved for “situations” — places where it is working.

To know the progress of cases against those arrested, one will only need to log on to the website and get an up-to-date report on how well, or badly, the person is faring.

The ICC prosecutor can initiate an investigation on three criteria — a referral from a State Party, referral from the United Nations Security Council or on the basis of information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the court received from individuals or organisations.

The cases are then taken to the pre-trial chambers, where the prosecution presents its case for full trial. When a pre-trial chamber finds that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that the person has committed a crime within the jurisdiction of the court”, it may issue an arrest warrant or a summons.

Uganda, the DRC and the CAR have referred situations occurring on their territories to the court while the Security Council referred the situation in Darfur.

The cases against Uganda’s Joseph Kony, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen are being heard in the pre-trial chamber. Warrants of arrest have been issued against the three, who are the top members of the Lord’s Resistance Army, which fights in the north of Uganda.

Thomas Lubanga, Bosco Ntaganda, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo of the DRC are also facing the ICC. Sudanese President Omar al Bashir and three citizens, have also been indicted. Jean-Pierre Bemba from the CAR has also been indicted by the ICC. His case is in pre-trial chamber.