Sudanese authorities have ordered the return to prison of former President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, ousted after the April 2019 coup d’état, after several months in hospital due to his delicate health condition.
Hashim al Jaali, al Bashir’s lawyer, stressed that the judicial authorities have communicated that the former president will be transferred to Kober prison along with several high-ranking Islamist officials convicted in recent months.
He detailed that among those affected by the measure are the former vice-president Bakri Hassan Sali, the former interior minister Ali al Haj and Ibrahim al Sanosi, a senior official of al Bashir’s party, the Popular Congress Party (PCP), as reported by the Sudanese news portal Sudan Tribune.
The former president and more than 30 leaders of the National Islamic Front (NIF) are on trial for the military coup of June 1989, which overthrew an elected government and brought Al Bashir to power, although they were transferred to a military hospital after the new uprising in October 2021.
The new coup, led by the head of the army and president of the Sovereign Transitional Council, Abdelfatá al Burhan, overthrew the transitional authorities agreed upon after the overthrow of Al Bashir, deepening the serious political crisis in which the African country is immersed.
Al Bashir, convicted of corruption, is the subject of two arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for alleged abuses committed under his command in the Darfur region.
Although the Sudanese transitional authorities were open to handing the former president over to the international court, this has so far not materialized. The same fate could also befall former Interior Minister Ahmed Harun and former Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Husein.
