Sudan’s Al-Bashir due to face graft charges in court

KHARTOUM, SUDAN— The ousted president of Sudan, Omar alBashir, will soon appear in court to face charges of corruption and possessing foreign currency, the country’s acting prosecutor general said Saturday.

Corruption cases have also been opened against 41 other former officials, the prosecutor, Alwaleed Sayed Ahmed, said at a news conference in Khartoum. He said al-Bashir would be referred for trial at the hearing after a one-week period for objections expires.

A court appearance by al-Bashir might ease continued speculation about his fate among many Sudanese. He has not been seen in public since he was toppled by his own generals April 11, following months of tumultuous protests led by young Sudanese frustrated with his 30-year rule.

Generals said al-Bashir was initially put under house arrest at his residence in the military headquarters and was later transferred to Kober prison, on the north bank of the Nile, where for years he detained his own enemies.

But the military has refused to produce any proof of al-Bashir’s incarceration, either in the form of photographs or by allowing Western officials access to him. That has stoked suspicions among many Sudanese that al-Bashir is not being held at all. Rumours have circulated that he was quietly spirited out to a wealthy Persian Gulf country, like Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates.

The rumours and distrust are a function of tensions between the protest leaders, who are demanding an immediate transition to civilian rule in Sudan, and the generals who seized power from al-Bashir and have refused to let go.

A brutal crackdown by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on June 3, when troops killed scores of people in a sweep of the main protest area in Khartoum, suggested to many that while al-Bashir may be gone, the generals he empowered are determined to maintain their sway.

The corruption charges al-Bashir faces in Sudan are unrelated to his decade-old indictment by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The ruling junta says it will not send al-Bashir to face those charges at the international court in The Hague.