A prominent Islamic scholar, Qatari Professor Abdel-Hameed Al-Ansari, lashed out at the Arab Lawyers Syndicate (ALS) based in Cairo for backing the Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir after the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked pre-trial judges in mid-July to issue arrest warrant for him.

Ocampo filed 10 charges: three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder. Judges are expected to take months to study the evidence before deciding whether to order Al-Bashir’s arrest.

“We will not hear a voice from the ALS, which has mobilized itself to defend indicted presidents, supporting the weak and marginalized” the Qatari Professor Abdel-Hameed Al-Ansari said in an article published in the UAE daily Al-Ittihad newspaper. The former Dean of the Islamic Law department at Qatar University also accused Arab lawyers of double standards.

“Al-Bashir does not need the ALS to defend him but the Darfur victims and the millions of oppressed are in desperate need of legal help from these advocates” he said.

A delegation of the ALS flew to Khartoum following the ICC announcement voicing their strong support to Al-Bashir and formed a legal team to defend him. The ALS chief Sami Ashoor accused the ICC of being a tool used by the international community against Arab leaders.

But Al-Ansari said he is not surprised by Ashoor’s statements. “This position is not unexpected from the ALS or its head. This is not the first time. Their history is filled with wonders and strange things” Al-Ansari said. The Qatari professor recounted how the ALS backed Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. “What have been said today in defense of Al-Bashir and his policies was said yesterday in defense of Saddam and his adventures but it did not help anyways. They repeat the same arguments; politicization of international justice, double standards, prejudice against Arabs, selective justice and serving US agenda” he said.

“Where were these syndicates in face of mass graves, Darfur massacres, genocide in Halabga and Southern Iraq? Why do their voices get louder and they start displaying bravery against the US for Abu-Gharaib and Guantanamo? Then they go mute over what happens in the prisons and detention centers in their countries and what happens to hundreds of human beings who go behind the sun” Al-Ansari added.

Al-Ansari also made a subtle endorsement of the genocide charges brought against Al-Bashir by the ICC prosecutor. “What they [ALS] always try to ignore is the victims….300,000 deaths and 2 million refugees [in Darfur] whose villages were destroyed by the Arab Janjaweed militias. Their entire fault was that they are not Arabs like their rulers” he said.   »»» Calibre Macro*World

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