New guidelines for judicial employees in Darfur

The federal Ministry of Justice has issued new, strict guidelines for judicial employees. At a press conference on Monday, the federal Minister of Justice, Mohamed Bishara Dosa, announced that his Ministry has issued strict guidelines for judicial employees. He admitted that they are partly responsible for the lack of justice in Darfur. The guidelines instruct judges, their staffs, officials under judges’ control, and all other employees of the judiciary to deal with “outlaws” on the principle that “no one is above the law”. “The crimes of the offenders, no matter who they are, have to be investigated, proven, and documented in accordance with the guidelines.”   The Minister also said that suspects are to be transferred to prisons outside North Darfur, “to prevent their relatives trying to release them from prison by force of arms as happened in Darfur”. He announced the start of greater judicial mobilisation in Darfur, aiming at “the restoration of the prestige of the state and the rule of law”. The public prosecutors’ offices in Darfur will be enhanced with 30 attorneys for a period of six months. “During this period they will conduct pre-trials according to the correct procedures, report crimes, and order the arrest of offenders.” The Justice Minister urged them “not to hesitate to use the maximum power of the law against anyone who commits a crime”. The Special Prosecutor for Darfur crimes, Yasir Ahmed Mohamed, added that “powerful trials for thefts of mobile phones may scare them off”. Yasir Ahmed Mohamed, appointed in June 2012 as new Special Prosecutor for Darfur crimes, is the third to be appointed in the position after his two predecessors quit. The Sudanese government created this position to prove its seriousness in trying the perpetrators of war crimes in the region. The previous prosecutors, however, failed to bring charges against any individual. The second Special Prosecutor, Abdel Da’im Zumrawi, who resigned in April 2011, has reportedly complained about the decision to grant judicial immunity to some of the individuals investigated. The first Darfur prosecutor, Nimir Ibrahim Mohamed, was dismissed by the Minister of Justice in October 2010 after he attempted to investigate the current Governor of North Kordofan State, Ahmed Haroun, who is indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). File photo: Minister of Justice, Mohamed Bishara DosaRelated:Unamid call for observers Special Court for Darfur ‘waste of time’: Darfur Bar (26 january 2014)