It is about flipping time!

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is expected Monday to charge Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with crimes against humanity for allegedly directing the campaign of rape and murder that has plagued the Darfur region for five years.

The charges, which would come as the result of an investigation requested by the United Nations Security Council, could also complicate U.N. peacekeeping missions in Sudan. Critics have long said such prosecutions risk inciting additional violence, though many human-rights groups support them.

Getting Mr. Bashir to trial in The Hague won’t be easy because the court has no police force. Countries would be obliged to turn him over, but the U.N. peacekeeping missions in the region aren’t charged with apprehending fugitives.

An ICC indictment would restrict Mr. Bashir’s travel and could “curtail his ability to commit more crimes,” says Dismas Nkunda, chairman of the aid-group coalition Darfur Consortium in Kampala, Uganda. But he also says that Mr. Bashir has the financial and political means to stay put and ignore the court. Sudan, like the U.S., hasn’t signed up to the ICC.

Thousands of Sudanese rallied in support of Mr. Bashir Sunday, snarling traffic in the Sudan capital, Khartoum. A statement from the ruling party, carried on state television, called the expected indictment “irresponsible, cheap political blackmail” that would bring “more violence and blood” to Darfur, according to wire-service reports.