ICC Darfur Chamber terminates proceedings against Saleh Jerbo

Trial Chamber IV of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has announced that it is terminating proceedings against Saleh Jerbo, commander of a former rebel faction who was indicted for war crimes in March 2011, but has reportedly subsequently died in battle in Darfur. In a statement on Friday, the Chamber highlighted that, despite the absence of an official death certificate, the evidence it has received points towards the death of Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus on 19 April 2013. The proceedings against co-accused Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain will continue. The trial is scheduled to start on 5 May 2014. The Chamber explained that “the purpose of criminal proceedings is to determine individual criminal responsibility and that, in the present circumstances, it is appropriate to terminate the case against Jerbo without prejudice, but to resume such proceedings should information become available that he is alive”. In April this year, the JEM-Bashar faction who broke away from the mainstream Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to sue for peace with the Khartoum government in 2012, announced its deputy general commander Saleh Mohammed Jerbo was killed in a battle in North Darfur.Jerbo was indicted but the ICC – along with co-accused Abdallah Banda, for allegedly killing 12 Unamid peacekeepers in an attack on their Haskanita coimpound in 2007. File photo: From left to right – Defence lawyer Karim Khan, Abdallah Banda and Saleh Jerbo (ICC Photo) Related: Lawyers say ICC suspect Jerbo killed in Darfur (24 April 2013) ICC suspect, JEM-Bashar deputy presumably killed in Darfur (22 April 2013)