President Omar al-Bashir is Sudan’s ex-president who’s controlled the country under dictatorship rule for 30-years. Bashir was ousted from power in a military coup last week and was arrested, alongside other top officials in his government after months of protests – in response to a rise in living costs and
The Reuters news agency reports that he is being held in the capital Khartoum at the Kobar maximum security prison. They added that he is being held in solitary confinement under tight security.
The military which is currently in control of the country, dissolved the government, has said it would remain in power for up to two years, despite large street protests against their rule.
Sudan’s military has previously said that it would prosecute Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), but would not extradite him, According to CNN. He will be charged with corruption and the death of protesters.
On Tuesday, a Ugandan foreign minister said his country would consider offering Bashir asylum. “If former Sudan leader al-Bashir sought asylum in Uganda, Uganda will consider it,” State Minister for Foreign Affairs in charge of International Relations, Henry Okello Oryem, told journalists after he left a parliamentary committee meeting.
Bashir faces five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes at the ICC in The Hague in connection with Sudanese military actions in Darfur between 2003 and 2008. The ICC plans on trying Bashir for his crimes and had this to say in a statement;
“More than a decade after the first arrest warrant was issued against him in 2009, the time has come for al-Bashir to face justice at the ICC,” said Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty’s International Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
Today, the Military Transitional Council gave companies and government entities 72 hours to disclose their financial holdings in a bid to fight “corruption and hold the corrupt accountable“, an act to pacify protestors.
