Pro-Bashir protesters against Sudan's 'ICC surrender' plans

Supporters of ousted Sudanese leader Omar Al-Bashir held a protest Saturday vowing to oppose any move by the country’s new authorities to hand him over to the International Criminal Court, ICC.

The former president is wanted for his alleged role in the Darfur war that erupted in 2003 as ethnic African rebels took up arms against Bashir’s then Arab-dominated government.

The protesters were rejecting the proposed use of foreign tribunals to handle Sudanese matters.

Diaa al-dine Mohammed, an official of Bashir’s National Congress Party told the media: “We call on the Sudanese government to refrain from handing him to ICC since it questions the integrity of the Sudanese judiciary. We have trust in our own judicial system and it has proven its professionalism throughout our political history.”

About 300,000 people were killed and 2.5 million displaced in the 2003 conflict, according to the United Nations.

The ICC has accused Bashir of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.. He denies the charges.

Bashir, who ruled Sudan for three decades after seizing power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, is being held in a Khartoum prison and facing trial on corruption charges.