Charges have been filed regarding complicity in serious crime against international law in Sudan

The prosecutor’s background regarding the filed charges

During the period of 1997-2003, there was an ongoing armed conflict between the government and rebel groups in Sudan. An agreement regarding prospecting and production sharing between companies linked to a Swedish company and the Sudanese government was entered into February 6th, 1997. The defendants, who held senior positions in the companies, participated in the conclusion of the agreement. The agreement covered a larger area, Block 5A, in southern Sudan and involved the right to search for and extract oil in that area during a certain time span in exchange for certain fees and part of future profits. During the period of May 1999 to March 2003, the Sudanese government conducted offensive military operations in and in the vicinity of Block 5A to gain control over the area in order to explore and create conditions for oil extraction. During these military operations, severe violations of international humanitarian law were committed.

The criminal act as charged

According to the statement of the criminal act as charged, the defendants, individually or jointly and by consensus, promoted that the Sudanese government applied warfare which, among other things, included that the military and allied militia groups systematically attacked civilians or at least carried out attacks systematically contrary to the so-called principle of distinction and proportionality.

Further procedure

The Court will now begin processing the filed charges and will later on give information about an upcoming main hearing.

Additional information

To order documents from the case file, please refer to stockholms.tingratt.avdelning4@dom.se.

For other questions regarding the case, please refer to court clerks Anna Wester or Tobias Franzén.

The judge responsible for this case is Tomas Zander.