By Mawahib Abdallatif, Khartoum SUDAN
Deposed Sudan President Omar al Bashir, already on trial over economic
crimes during his 30-year reign, faces a possible death sentence over his role
in the 1989 coup that removed the democratically elected government of Sadid
al-Mahdi from power.
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| Former Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir . He faces a possible death sentence over his role in the 1989 coup that removed the democratically elected government of Sadid al-Mahdi from power. |
During a busy week where he has tried
to build confidence in the judiciary following the ouster of Mr al-Bashir in
April, Attorney General Taj AlSir AlHeabr said he had formed a committee to
investigate the June 30, 1989 military putsch which was led by Mr al-Bashir.
The committee’s findings will form
the basis of prosecution of the Islamic Movement's leaders, including civilians
and military personnel, for undermining the constitutional system. The charge
has no limitation for time lapses and is punishable by death or life
imprisonment.
“The committee has the competencies
of public prosecution of military coup perpetrators,” Mr AlHeabr said. It is
empowered to call any person to help with investigations and will report back
in three months.
The attorney general said he hoped
the findings would lay down a marker against forceful take-over of government
that has characterised Sudan’s politics. The first coup happened in 1958 just
two years after independence when Ibrahim Abboud usurped power.
He was dethroned by Jaafar Numeiri in
1969 who later suffered the same fate at the hands of Mr al-Bashir.
Mr al-Bashir soon cultivated
legitimacy with the international community which did not frown at coups then
as it does now until he got isolated over his support of terrorist
organisations, hostility to a number of neighbouring governments and his
ideological leanings to Sharia law.
Sudan Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok
is now on a diplomatic offensive to have Sudan removed from the US state
sponsors of terrorism blacklist, which has limited its ability to attract
investments or secure external financing for development in the face of a $55
billion debt stockpile.
Last week, the Sudan Council of
Ministers resolved to annul the Public Order Act under which women were
severely punished for misconducts as provided under Sheria law. The annulment
now awaits the endorsement of ruling Transition Sovereign Council.
The committee will later write a
criminal report against the masterminds and perpetrators on the 1989 coup.
Besides Mr al-Bashir, Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, Nafie Ali Nafie, Ali Al-Haj
Mohammed, Ibrahim Al-Sanusi and leaders of the National Islamic Front party led
by Hassan Al-Turabi also face charges of undermining the constitutional order.
Legal experts said the turn of events
would represent poetic justice for Mr al-Bashir who during his reign exploited
provisions on crimes against the state to intimidate and prosecute political
opponents as well as civilians.
Article 50 of the Sudanese Criminal
Code of 1991 provides that conviction for actions intended to undermine the
constitutional order of the country or to jeopardising its independence or
unity attracts punishment by death, life imprisonment and confiscation of
property.
The opening of the 1989 coup has
attracted mixed reactions with supporters, saying the now independent judiciary
should issue deterrents to prevent future coups.
Soon after deposing Mr al-Bashir,
military generals led by Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, repeated on a number of
occasions that they had foiled coups schemed by uniformed personnel and former
elements of Mr al-Bashir’s regime.
Critics, however, say the trial over
the coup would not be seen as anything more than the new rulers sacrificing
their former leader to convince the masses of their reform credentials.
Mr al-Bashir and scores of close allies
are already in custody on trials ranging from money laundering to corruption.
"There are more pressing regime
symbols that the transitional authority in Sudan should punish such as
corruption, the killing of demonstrators, as well as war crimes in the areas of
armed conflict, whether in Darfur or South Kordofan,” said Tariq Osman, a
political analyst.
Mr al-Bashir has already been
indicted by the International Criminal Court over atrocities in the Darfur
region. The Hague Court, however, could not secure his arrest while he was in
power as countries like Jordan, Kenya and South Africa which he visited waved
away obligations to arrest him with claims of his diplomatic immunity.
The sovereign council has blown hot
and cold on handing him over to The Hague for trial, with its military wing
reluctant and the civil wing keen to honour the international obligation.
However, Sudan is presently not a
signatory to the ICC treaty.
The military wing of the Sovereign
council is also not sitting pretty after AlHeabr vowed on Wednesday to try
killers of protesters at a sit-in outside the military headquarters on June 3.
Officially, 63 people were killed when uniformed men fired at protests but
independent sources said up to 130 people may have died.
Fingers at the time pointed at the
paramilitary Rapid Support Forces headed by the deputy leader of the Sovereign
Council Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo for the deaths. The then transitional
military council denied the claims saying some protesters were armed.
“I will try the killers even if it
was Al-Burhan himself as no one is above the law,” AlHeabr was quoted assuring
families of victims of the attack by the Middle East Monitor on Thursday.
Hamdok ordered an investigation into the deaths in September. – The
East African
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