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2019-06-18 Africa Horn
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Scepticism as Sudan moves to put Omar al-Bashir on trial
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[Al Jazeera] Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir
Head of the National Congress Party. He came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi and eventually appointed himself president-for-life. He has fallen out with his Islamic mentor, Hasan al-Turabi, tried to impose shariah on the Christian and animist south, resulting in its secessesion, and attempted to Arabize Darfur by unleashing the barbaric Janjaweed on it. Sudan's potential prosperity has been pissed away in warfare that has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced. Omar has been indicted for genocide by the International Criminal Court but nothing is expected to come of it.
has appeared in public for the first time since his overthrow by the military following months of mass protests against his 30-year-long autocratic rule.
Dressed in a white robe and turban, the toppled leader was seen on Sunday as he was escorted under heavy guard from a maximum security prison in Sudan's capital Khartoum to the prosecutor's office.
There, prosecutors informed him he faced charges of "possessing foreign currency and acquiring suspicious and illicit wealth", according to the official SUNA news agency.
He was given one week to raise objections, questioned on additional unspecified corruption charges, and taken back to Kobar prison.
If al-Bashir does not appeal, he could appear in court as early as next week, Sudan's acting Chief Prosecutor Alwaleed Sayed Ahmed said on Saturday.
In Khartoum, the moves against the 75-year-old former president triggered derision and scepticism from critics who dismissed it as an attempt by Sudan's new military rulers to deflect attention from a recent bloody crackdown on protesters, as well as its reluctance to cede power to a civilian-led transitional administration.
They also questioned the likelihood of al-Bashir receiving a fair trial in Sudan or being held accountable for the most egregious of charges against him.
The former leader, who came to power in a coup in 1989, is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide relating to abuses by Sudanese forces in the country's Darfur region between 2003 and 2008.
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Posted by Fred 2019-06-18 00:00||
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File under: Govt of Sudan
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