Sudan prosecutor to investigate former regime crimes in Darfur

Sudan’s public prosecutor has opened an investigation into crimes committed in Darfur by the former regime.

Investigators will examine the responsibility of officials of Omar al-Bashir’s government, the public prosecutor’s office said. Bashir was deposed last April following pressure from social protests,

“We have started an investigation into the crimes committed in Darfur since 2003”, said magistrate Tagelsir El-Heber in Khartoum.

He added that the investigation will look into “cases against former officials of the Bashir regime.”

Bashir is wanted by two International criminal court arrest warrants from 2009 and 2010, for “genocide”, “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes” in Darfur.

The new government in Sudan has promised to quell unrest in regions including Darfur, where a violent war between rebels and pro-governmental forces has killed 300,000 and displaced over 2.5 million people since 2003, according to the UN.

Bashir has yet to be extradited to The Hague, where the International Criminal Court is based.

However, he was sentenced to two years in jail, for corruption, by a court in Khartoum on December 14.

Bashir is also under investigation and cited in an arrest warrant for his role in the 1989 coup in which he took power.