Sudan’s Information Minister Faisal Salih on Monday said the government could send former leader Omar al-Bashir and other suspects to The Hague for trial before the International Criminal Court, but any such decision would need to be first approved by the military and civilian ruling council, reported Reuters.
“One possibility is that the ICC will come here so they will be appearing before the ICC in Khartoum, or there will be a hybrid court maybe, or maybe they are going to transfer them to The Hague…That will be discussed with the ICC,” Salih told Reuters.
The information minister said all the different options for the ICC proceedings would be discussed with an ICC delegation that was expected to visit Khartoum. He said any decision would need approval by the Sudan High Peace Council, which includes the military-led Sovereign Council, senior cabinet members, and representatives of political groups that opposed Bashir.
The Hague-based ICC has issued two arrest warrants for Bashir on charges of alleged war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity in the troubled Darfur region of Sudan.
Bashir was ousted by the military in April last year after mass protests erupted against his three-decade rule. He is currently in Khartoum’s Kober prison, where he had locked up his opponents while in office.
Last week, his lawyer said the ex-president refused any dealings with the ICC because it was a “political court”.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the ousted president Bashir was summoned by the Public Prosecution Office dealing with corruption and financial investigations summoned on money laundering, and corruption charges.
Sudan’s transitional government is currently trying to get Sudan’s name removed from the United States list of state sponsors of terrorism, a tag that has barred it from receiving foreign monetary assistance from the World Bank and the IMF. Sudan was placed on the list in 1993 after the U.S. government accused the then Bashir government of supporting Islamist militants.
