MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON IN KHARTOUM FOR BASHIR
▶ Uganda prepared to offer Sudan’s former president political asylum
Sudan’s deposed president Omar Al Bashir was transferred to a maximum security prison a week after being forced from office by the military. His ousting was the result of four months of mass rallies against his three-decade rule.
Mr Al Bashir was moved to Kobar prison in the capital, Khartoum, late on Tuesday, family sources told Reuters.
After being removed from power on April 11, Mr Al Bashir was held under heavy guard in a presidential residence, security officials said.
Meanwhile, Uganda said that it would consider offering political asylum to Mr Al Bashir, although the former leader has not contacted Kampala to inquire about refuge.
“Uganda would not be apologetic at all for considering an application by Bashir,” Okello Oryem, Uganda’s state minister for foreign affairs, told Reuters. Mr Oryem said there was no harm in considering offering asylum to Mr Al Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court over the deaths of an estimated 300,000 people during an insurgency in the western Darfur region more than a decade ago.
Uganda, like all signatories to the ICC, is obliged to hand over anyone wanted by the court who enters its territory. Sudan’s new leadership said it has no intention of sending Mr Al Bashir to The Hague.
The news came after the Sudanese Professionals’ Association, which has led the demonstrations against Mr Al Bashir, gave the military transitional council an ultimatum this week – hand over to a civilian-led government or face sustained protests.
Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, the new head of the military body overseeing the transition from the president’s National Congress party, has contacted protest organisers including the SPA and said a return to civilian leadership could happen within months, but no longer than two years from now.
He has released demonstrators arrested since December and vowed to uproot the National Congress. But those behind the popular movement say it is not enough.
The military council fired the country’s three highest-ranking public prosecutors on Tuesday after calls from protesters for a major overhaul of a judiciary they say was a central pillar of Mr Al Bashir’s regime.
The three officials removed from office were chief prosecutor Omar Ahmed Mohamed Abdelsalam, deputy public prosecutor Hesham Othman Ibrahim Saleh, and head of public prosecutions, Amer Ibrahim Majid. Their removal was one of the SPA’s demands.
Alwaleed Sayed Ahmed Mahmoud was appointed to carry out Mr Abdelsalam’s duties, it said. Mr Mahmoud’s background was not made clear.
A delegation from Saudi Arabia and the UAE met Lt Gen Al Burhan in Khartoum on Tuesday, according to a council statement. During the meeting, Lt Gen Al Burhan “praised the distinguished relationship between Sudan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE”.
As chief of Sudan’s ground forces, Lt Gen Burhan oversaw Sudanese troops fighting in the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and has close ties to senior Gulf military officials.
The UAE, a leading member of the Saudi-led coalition fighting
in Yemen, was quick to welcome Lt Gen Al Burhan’s appointment and said it planned to accelerate aid to Sudan. Shortly after he took office, Riyadh said it would provide wheat, fuel and medicine to Sudan.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi also called Lt Gen Al Burhan on Tuesday to offer his backing, a presidential spokesman said. The spokesman said Mr El Sisi had repeated “Egypt’s full support for the security and stability of Sudan and its support for the will and choices of the Sudanese people”. The military council said Mr El Sisi was expected to visit Sudan in the coming days.
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council on Monday called for the military transition council to hand power to a civilian-led transitional authority within 15 days or risk Sudan being suspended from the body.
On Monday, Jalal Al Sheikh, a member of the military body, said the process of picking a prime minister was already under way – before elections promised within two years.