A Kuwaiti newspaper has reported that Hassan Al-Turabi, a former influential member of the global Muslim Brotherhood, has accused the Arab world of ignoring the Darfur issue and called for the prosecution of the Sudanese President by the International Criminal Court. (ICC) According to the report:
Sudanese oppositionist intellectual Hassan Al-Turabi has accused the Arabs of ignoring the Darfur issue until the International Criminal Court indictment of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. He said that President Bashir, who knew about the Darfur crimes, should be tried by the ICC, because under Islamic law no one is immune, not even heads of state. Al-Turabi also rejected claims that the court case was political, and expressed confidence in prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Previous posts reported on the arrest and release of Turabi in May after being accused of aiding a Darfur rebel attack on the Sudanese capital. As those posts reported, Turabi has been arrested multiple times by the Sudanese regime following his break with the country’s leadership. Turabi is probably best known as the man who invited Osama bin Laden to live in Khartoum during the 1990s when Sudan was both a center for terrorist activity and strongly under the influence of Turabi. He was formerly very active in the global Muslim Brotherhood but since his break with the Sudanese leadership, he no longer appears active.
Youssef Qaradawi, one of the most important leaders of the global Muslim Brotherhood, has rejected calls for ICC involvement in Sudan.
For a profile of Turabi, go here.