[JURIST] The Sudanese trial of Ali Kushayb [Trial Watch profile], one of the two suspects accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of committing war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region, and two other security officials has been delayed after Kushayb filed an appeal in the case, Sudanese court officials said Thursday. Kushayb, Hamdi Sharafeddin and Abdel Rahman Daoud Hamida were due to face trial [JURIST report] Wednesday in a Sudanese criminal court on charges of kidnapping, sequestration, arson and murder against civilians in Darfur [JURIST news archive]. Court officials said Thursday the delay in the trial had been caused by an appeal being forwarded to the Sudanese attorney general.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo last week asked the international court to issue summonses [JURIST report] for Kushayb and former Sudanese Interior Minister Ahmad Muhammad Harun in what was the first action taken against individuals in the ICC's ongoing investigation [ICC materials; JURIST news archive] of the Darfur situation. Under the ICC's governing Rome Statute [PDF text], the ICC can prosecute individuals for war crimes, genocide or crimes against humanity only when a state is unwilling or unable to genuinely do so. Sudan has repeatedly rejected the ICC's jurisdiction [JURIST report] over the Darfur situation, and if Sudan tries Kushayb on the same charges he faces at the ICC, the ICC may lose jurisdiction over the case. Moreno-Ocampo has previously said that the Sudanese investigation against Kushayb does not overlap with the ICC's case [press briefing transcript]. Kushayb has rejected the ICC's accusations [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.