Guilty of corruption, Sudan’s ex-president sent to reform center

For New Pittsburgh Courier

(TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN)—From a cell inside the court in Khartoum, Sudan’s former President Omar al-Bashir heard the judgement against him— two years in detention for money laundering and corruption.

It was a dramatic fall for the former regional power broker who rose through the ranks from paratroop officer to colonel in the Sudanese Army, from chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation to finally all the posts of chief of state, prime minister, chief of the armed forces, and minister of defense. He served as president of Sudan for 30 years.

As a brigadier in the Sudanese Army, he led a group of officers in a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.

He ruled with an iron fist —his 30-year dictatorship was marked by oppression, genocide, and human rights abuses.

In the Darfur region, he fought a war against south Sudanese that resulted in death tolls estimated between 200,000 and 400,000, according to the U.N., from either combat, starvation or disease. This produced an arrest warrant in 2010 for the crime of genocide but it was dismissed by the Sudanese government and opposed by the African Union, League of Arab States and the Non-Aligned Movement as well as the governments of Russia and China.

Eight years later, price increases in fuel and bread set off angry protests and finally a demand for Mr. Bashir’s removal from power. After months of unrest, Sudan’s military stepped in and toppled Mr Bashir on April 11, 2019.

Al Bashir was finally done in by corruption. Millions of dollars were discovered stuffed in suitcases and a large hoard of foreign currency was found at his home.

As Mr. Bashir is over 70, he will serve his 2-year sentence in a state-run reform center. An appeal is being mounted, say his lawyers who called the verdict ‘political.’

Still, many are unsatisfied with the short sentence. “It’s just a slap on the wrist,” said a spokeswoman for the Sudanese Professionals Association. “Bashir needs to answer for his role in the 1989 coup, torture and killings including crimes against humanity in Darfur.”

Jehanne Henry of a Human Rights Watch who focuses on Sudan, added” “The trial for these charges of financial crimes does not address the human rights violations that so many Sudanese have experienced. So the sentence will not likely satisfy the many thousands of victims of abuses under al-Bashir’s 30-year rule.”

(Feature Photo: Omar al-Bashir)

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