Sudan:Our Turn

SUDAN

Our Turn

Human-rights groups representing victims of the Darfur genocide filed a criminal complaint Thursday against French banking giant BNP Paribas alleging the lender was providing financial services to the Sudanese government during the genocide and thereby facilitating it, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Plaintiffs say the bank allowed the Sudanese government to pay security forces and make purchases abroad between 2002 and 2008, when country was targeted with economic sanctions.

The bank said that it wasn’t aware of the complaint and that it wouldn’t comment on judicial procedures.

The complaint is expected to reopen a dark chapter in the bank’s history – the largest in Europe by assets – which was the target of a US investigation for violating its economic sanctions against Sudan.

Four years ago, the lender was ordered to pay nearly $9 billion and plead guilty to violating sanctions against Sudan, Iran and Cuba in an unprecedented case.

Part of the fine was used to pay victims of the September 11 attacks and others including the twin 1998 US Embassy bombings in East Africa. The genocide victims in Darfur never received compensation.

“To this day, they have been denied the possibility of justice,” Mossaad M. Ali, a plaintiff in the case, told the Journal.