21 July 2020; MEMO: Former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and 16 others will appear before a special court of three judges in Khartoum today on charges of carrying out a coup against the elected government in 1989.
Moez Hadarah, part of the public prosecution, said: “The defendants are brought to trial under Article 96 of the 1983 Sudanese Criminal Code, which undermines constitutional order and Article 78 of the same Act, namely, participation in the criminal act.”
If Al-Bashir is convicted under Article 96, he may face the death penalty, according to the indictment. “We have strong evidence against Al-Bashir,” the prosecution confirmed.
“It is the first time in Sudan that a military coup was brought to trial,” he said.
The Sudanese army ousted Al-Bashir in April 2019 following popular protests that lasted several months.
The most prominent suspects in the case are Al-Bashir’s deputies Ali Osman Taha and Bakri Hassan Saleh, in addition to military and civilian elements who assumed ministerial positions and governed states during the era of the former president.
“Al-Bashir and Bakri Hassan Saleh refused to speak to the investigative committee. They will still be brought to trial,” said Hadarah.
Al-Bashir seized power from an elected government headed by Sadiq Al-Mahdi, leader of the National Umma Party, the most prominent Sudanese party.
Al-Bashir’s defence team, which is composed of 150 lawyers, considers the case as a “political trial” as these cases are time-barred.
“Our view of the trial is that it is a political rather than legal, and it is also taking place in a hostile atmosphere for the defendants by law enforcement,” lawyer Hashem Al-Jaali told AFP.
Al-Jaali also added: “These facts are time-barred, since they have been more than ten years old.”
He believed that “the trial targets the Sudanese Islamic movement and they want to stigmatise it with terrorism, but we have evidence that refutes this and confirms that it is slander.”
Sudan is currently governed by a three-year transitional authority, after which general elections will be held.
