Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, who is charged with overseeing thousands of pro-government militiamen, known as “Janjaweed” during the peak of fighting from 2003 to 2004 and the responsibility for atrocities including murder, rape, pillaging and torture, pleaded not guilty to dozens of war crimes charges at the start of the International Criminal Court’s first trial over the Darfur conflict. Al Jazeera reports that his trial is the first before the Hague-based ICC for crimes in Darfur, in which the United Nations says 300,000 people were killed and two and a half million fled their homes.
