Attorney General: Cases Against RSF Militias’ Supporters to be Submitted to Courts of Justice Shortly

As the war in Sudan enters its third year, crimes and violations are increasing significantly, and it has been confirmed that the Rapid Support Force (RSF) militias have committed crimes that amount to genocide and gross human rights violations, which requires the activation of prompt justice that takes revenge for the citizens and brings criminals to court of law.
In order to determine the course of justice and the absence of impunity, we met with the Sudanese Attorney General, Maulana Al-Fateh Muhammad Tayfour, who has just concluded participation in the 59th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva a few days ago, and we discussed with him the communications, trials, accusations, mass graves and other heinous crimes that have affected the Sudanese people.
The following is the full text of the interview.

Interviewed in Cairo by: Sabah Moussa

-Question: First of all, we would like you to debrief us on what happened at the recent meeting of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.??

-Answer: This was the fourth participation of the National Commission to Investigate Violations of National Law and International Humanitarian Law in the meetings of the Human Rights Council, with Sudan being one of the 47 countries that make up the council. This session included a briefing from the UN Fact-Finding Committee in addition to other activities. We presented a statement clarifying the progress made in the field of justice, accountability, and preventing impunity in Sudan. The statement explained several important figures, and we provided a detailed report that was distributed to member states as well as the Council Chair. The statistics we presented showed that in the previous session in September, there were more than 68,000 cases. Now, as of May 15, the number of cases has reached over 120,000. The number of cases dismissed at the investigation stage is 570, while approximately 4,000 cases have been referred for trial, and sentences have been issued in 1,093 cases, 2,904 cases are still pending. The number of court sessions in which the prosecution represented the cases is 6,168. If we compare these figures to last year, we find a very significant difference, indicating substantial progress in the fields of accountability and justice.

-Question: – Were all these cases and sentences carried out against the militia and its members, or were there reports and sentences against regular forces? What does the large number of cases imply?

-Answer: The high number of cases indicates the spread of the public prosecution into the states where the rebel militias were present. After regaining control of Khartoum and Al-Gezira and driving the militia away from the outskirts of Sinar and White Nile, this was coupled with the said developments. People were able to return to their areas and submit reports, which explains the increase in cases. The public prosecution has facilitated people’s access to police and prosecutorial offices and abolished geographic jurisdiction so that victims can file complaints anywhere, in addition to the existence of an electronic platform for submitting complaints. We have also discovered 965 mass graves in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Al-Gezira.

-Question: Have rulings been issued in these reports?

-Answer: We managed to present 3,997 cases to the court, and verdicts were issued in 1,093 of them. Many cases are still under review, and those for which rulings were issued have seen the arrest of the accused, and the punishments are being enforced now. The accused have the right to appeal, and the sentences ranged?? from death sentences to life imprisonment and other sentences. Those who have been tried are members of the militia.

-Question: Those who were prosecuted are members of the Rapid Support Forces and collaborators with them??

-Answer: The National Commission is not concerned with who committed a crime as much as it is with the status of the perpetrator, whether they are an ordinary citizen, affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces, or from regular forces. There are 270 complaints against members of regular forces, which have been handed over to us, and we have tried them with charges ranging from harm to killing during operations. The legal rulings have not yet been issued, and we have a complaint regarding the crime of Governor Khamees Abkar, and the court has listened to the fifth session. This complaint will have an in absentia ruling issued, while all previous rulings have seen the accused apprehended. The UN fact-finding committee has only visited Chad and Kenya, while some neighboring countries refused to allow its entry.

-Question: What about the collaborators with the Rapid Support Forces, and how were some of these collaborators dealt with via extrajudicial executions without trials, as shown in videos?

-Answer: The issue of extrajudicial killings is a type of conduct that the militia has widely practiced, and all of this is rejected and prohibited. The videos are being examined, and the individuals who carried out these acts are being identified and judged. Some have already been apprehended, but others have not yet been caught. The war is still going on, the work of the prosecution and judiciary is still ongoing, we have not finished our work yet. We discovered malicious reports during investigations easily, and a large part of the videos of slaughter and use of knives to open bellies are not in Sudan.

-Question: Returning to the meetings of the Human Rights Council, what did you recommend to the Council?

-Answer: Our recommendations were to condemn the behavior of the rebel militia and consider it a terrorist group, ban its activities and movements, name its leaders as terrorist elements, condemn the behavior of the UAE for its involvement in systematic violations and genocide in Sudan, pressure it to stop its support for the militia and oblige it to pay the losses inflicted on Sudan and the Sudanese, urge the countries of the region to cooperate with the National Committee in accessing victims and witnesses and recovering loot, excluding any alternative external mechanism, enhancing complementarity between the Human Rights Council and the National Commission, ending the mandate of a mission of inquiry Facts and support the National Committee to complete its tasks. Rape reports did not exceed 2% and we provided facilities to break the silence.

-Question: – what about other crimes?

-Answer: Among the crimes of the RSF militias: kidnapping and enforced disappearance, a very large number of citizens have been forcibly disappeared by the militia, and the number of cases reached 14,506 cases, and 965 mass graves were discovered in the areas of north, south and east of Khartoum, Omdurman and the Gezira, and in the coming period these cemeteries will be exhumed and the work of (DNA), which is a difficult process and needs support and great potential, for example in the cemetery of north of Khartoum it was discovered it contained more than 500 bodies, and we also stood on detention sites a number of those who were detained and shot by those forces, who spoke to prosecutors in open communications, and their testimony was taken and they talked about the conditions of detention and the number of detainees and people who died as a result of lack of treatment or hunger, who died under torture, and who were killed directly by gunshots, the detention conditions were was very bad and inhumane, and there are a number of forcibly detained people who were transferred to the states of Darfur in Daein, Nyala and some villages, our investigation is continuing, and a whole factory was discovered to manufacture narcotic pills in North Bahri, samples were taken and it turned out that this is evidence that the militia was also involved in the distribution and trade of these materials, and papers and IDS belonging to several members of the militia and mercenaries from Syria were found in this factory in the northern area of the refinery, where the Rapid Support Forces militia was in control.

-Question: In wars, malicious reports may be filed against individuals; how do you adjudicate these accusations?

-Answer :These accusations undergo very precise investigations, and whenever suitable data is available, it can serve as evidence in court, we refer it for trial and they are represented by legal aid to defend themselves and appeal the ruling. We uncover malicious accusations during investigations, and it is easy to achieve that. There have also been reports that have been dismissed before the court and prior to that in the appeal stage.

-Question: There are also accusations against some members of the regular forces for looting and stealing homes in certain places in Khartoum; have you investigated these crimes and have they been ruled upon?

-Answer: Not everything that circulates in the media is true, nevertheless, we have had 258 against regular forces and they have been tried, and any citizen who claims that someone has robbed or looted should go to the nearest prosecutor’s office or police station, report, and provide evidence. The investigations reveal the validity of what has been presented, and we subject any video that contains violations to technical examination to ensure the authenticity of the video.

-Question: Have you checked the videos of killing by using knives to slash bellies open and slaughtering that have been circulating on social media?

-Answer: A large part of these videos are not originally in Sudan, and there is great propaganda against the forces that support the army as ISIS, and there is no ISIS in Sudan, this is a popular resistance that defends itself according to legitimate methods, and everything that violates the law is reported and investigated.

-Question: Has the killing of a number of South Sudanese employees in al-Kanabi been investigated?

-Answer: No southern citizen was found to have been killed in the investigations that took place in Al-Kanabi, the events of Al-Kanabi. There is a case now being investigated, and the defendants are known, some have been arrested and the rest are being sought.

-Question: From which side do these defendants belong, are they really Islamists?

-Answer: At this stage, I don’t want to talk about that, but these people who committed these crimes there are witnesses who know them because they are from the same areas, and they are known and some of them have been arrested, and the others are being investigated, none among those killed in these events is a South Sudanese citizen, on the contrary, there are many people from South Sudan who worked as mercenaries in the war, and many of the casualties on the battlefields wearing rapid support forces uniforms and carrying weapons are from South Sudan, particularly from the Nuer tribes.

-Question: Did the international fact-finding committee continue its work last year or did it stop?

-Answer: According to its oral statement, our position regarding its work has not changed, and the committee was not allowed to enter Sudan. It provided a weak briefing to the council, visited some Sudan neighboring countries and stated that some neighboring countries also refused to receive it. It only went to Chad and Kenya, and mentioned that the complaints submitted to it were about 240 complaints, and that it met a number of people. We still insist on not allowing this committee to enter; I spoke with the head of the council and handed him a 66-page report in English with many details about the militia’s violations. I also met with the special rapporteur on combating sexual violence and provided her with a briefing about what is happening in Sudan, the situation of sexual violations that occurred, and that the militia committed all kinds of sexual violations, such as sexual slavery, forced marriage, forced pregnancy aimed at demographic change, rape intended to humiliate and break the will, and selling girls. Despite the fact that these violations were committed on a large scale, the number of registered reports is unfortunately only 98, and some have not returned to follow up on their cases. The documented violations in the Unit for Combating Violence Against Women is in the tune of 1,392 cases of rape, including minors, which represents less than 2% of what has occurred, due to fear of social stigma. We have partnerships with civil society organizations concerned with violence against women because this issue requires awareness, education, and encouragement for the community to break the silence surrounding it. Many facilitations have been provided, and we do not require what is known as the Article 8; it is not a prerequisite for treatment in hospitals that receive victims for health support, as the medical report is relied upon due to the conditions of war. Additionally, investigations in such cases are conducted by female members of the prosecution, and we know about the closed trial system, which maintains confidentiality, and we can use initials or symbols to anonymize names. All of these are attempts to convince the community to break the silence and seek justice and reclaim rights. The law permits safe abortion before reaching 90 days of pregnancy, and psychological and health support is provided to prevent sexually transmitted diseases. We assure Sudanese people that no criminal will go unpunished.

-Question: There are complaints against a number of members of the political forces that support your militia, how can a politician be sentenced in a criminal court?

-Answer: Yes, these defendants are political activists , but working in politics is not a justification for committing crimes, and we see in the National Committee and the prosecution that there are Sudanese citizens who are part of a criminal project that began to be implemented starting on April 12 and 13 and reached its peak on April 15 of 2023, and continues until now, these are partners of the rebel militia in all the crimes they committed, and therefore the issue that they are from political organizations that do not justify them to commit crimes, they do not practice a clean politics and committing the crime is different question. But they are complicit in the crimes, and we will bring them to criminal prosecution and there is sufficient evidence and data to convict them of direct participation in these crimes and violations that occurred against the Sudanese.

-Question: No sentences have yet been handed down against these politicians?

-Answer: No, the cases have not yet been transferred to the courts. But they will be transferred within days, the only case that was submitted to the court in absentia was the killing of Governor Khamis Abkar, and the defendants were announced and notified to surrender themselves.

-Question: There are accusations that you are cooperating with the fact-finding committee and that this is against the state’s decisions?

-Answer: There isn’t any type of cooperation with the international fact-finding committee, and our participation in the sessions of the Human Rights Council comes from the fact that Sudan is a member of the Council and must not miss its meetings, especially when it is dealing with issues of relevance to the country.

-Question: A final word?
– Answer: I want to reassure Sudanese people that the national committee and the public prosecution are moving forward in fulfilling their duties of accountability and preventing impunity, and that no criminal who has committed a crime against Sudanese people will escape punishment.

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