IJCentral: International Justice Central

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court in The Hague rejected Monday a prosecution request to appeal against a decision dismissing war crimes charges against a Sudanese rebel leader, effectively ending the case.

The prosecutor has alleged Bahar Idriss Abu Garda helped orchestrate the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers in Darfur in 2007, but the court said in February it was not satisfied there was enough evidence to warrant the charges.

The prosecution requested the right to appeal the ruling, stressing that the court applied a standard of evidence much higher than what was required and that it was wrong to conduct an “in-depth assessment of the evidence” at that stage.

“The proposition put forward by the prosecution, namely that the chamber should have applied a different standard to the assessment of the evidence at the confirmation of the charges stage, is without any legal basis,” the court said in its ruling.

It added that although the prosecution believes the chamber should have assessed the evidence differently, the court said it has exercised its discretionary powers to freely assess the evidence submitted by the prosecution.

The first Sudanese rebel to appear before the court in The Hague, Abu Garda denied all charges when he voluntarily attended a hearing in October to determine if he should face trial over the attack on the AU peacekeeping base.

He was one of three Sudanese rebels wanted in connection with the attack, but the war crimes court threw out the charges against Abu Garda in February after ruling he could not be held criminally responsible for intentionally directing the attack.

Despite rejecting the request to appeal that ruling, the court said in a Friday ruling made public Monday the prosecution could still seek to place Abu Garda on trial if it lodged a new request supported by additional evidence.

source:  Washington Post