Sudan’s Al-Bashir charged with corruption

Sudan’s public prosecutor has charged ousted president Omar al-Bashir with corruption, the official SUNA news agency said on Thursday.

The announcement came more than two month after the military ousted Bashir on April 11 following months of nationwide protests against his 30-year iron-fisted rule.

“The public prosecutor announces the completion of all investigations in the case brought against the deposed president Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir by anti-corruption prosecutors,” SUNA said.

An unnamed official was quoted by the agency as saying that Bashir is facing charges including “possessing foreign funds, acquiring suspected and illegal wealth and ordering (the state of) emergency”.

In April, Sudan’s army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said that more than 113 million dollars’ worth of cash in three currencies had been seized from Bashir’s residence.

He said a team of police, army and security agents found seven million euros ($7.8 million), $350 000 and five billion Sudanese pounds ($105 million) during a search at Bashir’s home.

Bashir swept to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989.

Sudan suffered high rates of corruption under his rule ranking 172 out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index.

Last month, Sudan’s public prosecutor ordered the questioning of Bashir over money-laundering and “financing terrorism”.

In an effort to quell protests that erupted against his rule in December, Bashir had imposed a nationwide state of emergency on February 22.

In May the prosecutor general said that Bashir had been charged over the killings of protesters during the anti-regime demonstrations that led to the end of his rule.