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
ArabizeDarfur 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.
was Sunday seen in public for the first time since being ousted, as he was driven in an armed convoy to the prosecutor's office.
The former strongman, who ruled his east African nation with an iron fist for three decades, was toppled on April 11 after weeks of protests against his reign.
Dressed in a white traditional robe and turban, Bashir rode in a heavily-armed convoy from the notorious Kober prison in the Sudanese capital Khartoum to be quizzed by prosecutors for alleged corruption.
Prosecutor Alaeddin Dafallah told news hounds after Bashir left the office that the ousted president had been informed that he was facing charges of "possessing foreign currency, corruption and receiving gifts illegally."
Meanwhile,
...back at the shouting match, a new, even louder, voice was to be heard...
a top general from the country's new ruling military council vowed that those who carried out a deadly crackdown on an iconic protest site that left dozens dead earlier this month would face the death penalty
"We are working hard to take those who did this to the gallows," Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy chief of the ruling military council said in a speech broadcast live on state television
... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"Whoever committed any fault" will be held accountable, Dagalo added.