THE HAGUE, Netherlands — International Criminal Court judges reluctantly threw out a case Thursday against a fugitive Sudanese rebel accused of orchestrating a deadly assault on African Union peacekeepers in Darfur nearly two decades ago, after prosecutors admitted they could no longer make their case stick at trial.
The ruling came after judges approved a prosecution request to drop charges against Abdallah Banda, who had been facing three war crimes counts connected to his alleged role in a 2007 attack on a peacekeeping base in northern Darfur. The judges’ written decision, made public last week, was notably harsh in its criticism of the prosecution team.
In a statement released Thursday, the court said judges “found that the Prosecution had not demonstrated that the evidence supporting the confirmed charges deteriorated to an extent such that the case could no longer proceed to trial.”
Despite that finding, the judges concluded that “proceeding to trial in this particular case, with a Prosecutor who refuses to present the case despite evidentiary and legal obligations to do so, would be in contravention of the Chamber’s ultimate obligation to ensure a fair and efficient trial.”
Prosecutors acknowledged the decision would affect 103 victims in the case “who have been waiting for over 15 years for justice for the crimes committed during the attack” on the peacekeeping forces. Still, they pointed to significant setbacks — including two key witnesses who lost credibility and a new witness whose testimony could actually support Banda’s defense.
“As a result, the Prosecution now no longer considers there are reasonable prospects of convicting Mr. Banda on any of the charges against him,” prosecutors wrote in their formal request to have the charges dismissed. They also noted that an independent analyst reviewed the evidence and reached the same conclusion.
The ruling arrives at a turbulent moment for the international court. The Trump Administration has been pushing to “dismantle” the ICC, and the court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, is facing a vote Friday among the court’s 125 member states on whether to remove him over sexual misconduct allegations he has denied.
Two decades ago, Sudan’s Darfur region became a symbol of genocide and war crimes, largely carried out by the Janjaweed Arab militias against populations identifying as Central or East African. The violence left as many as 300,000 people dead and displaced roughly 2.7 million others from their homes.
The ICC last year convicted a Janjaweed leader and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity stemming from that same conflict.
Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has also been charged by the ICC with crimes including genocide, but despite being removed from power and placed in custody, he has never been transferred to The Hague to face those charges.
ICC prosecutors believe war crimes and crimes against humanity are still being committed in Darfur, where civil war has continued for more than two years. The court’s deputy prosecutor, Nazhat Shameem Khan, told the U.N. Security Council last year that the humanitarian situation in Darfur “has reached an intolerable state,” with famine worsening and hospitals, aid convoys, and other civilian infrastructure coming under attack.
