{"id":3630,"date":"2019-04-23T15:48:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T15:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/?p=3630"},"modified":"2019-04-23T15:48:27","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T15:48:27","slug":"ousted-sudanese-president-al-bashir-moved-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/2019\/04\/23\/ousted-sudanese-president-al-bashir-moved-to-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted Sudanese President al-Bashir Moved to Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has not been seen since he was deposed as Sudan\u2019s president<\/a> last week, has been moved to a prison in the capital where he once confined those who challenged his nearly 30-year rule, according to two former advisers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The throngs of Sudanese protesters who forced the ouster of Mr. al-Bashir last Thursday have demanded that he be arrested and put on trial. Until now, the generals who have taken power have said only that he was being held in a \u201csafe place,\u201d but not where.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. al-Bashir is under indictment by the International Criminal Court at The Hague for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Those charges relate to the atrocities<\/a> his regime oversaw in the 2000s in Darfur, a province in the country\u2019s west. It is unclear whether he will be extradited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. al-Bashir was taken to Kober prison in Khartoum, according to Osama Nabil Sobhi, the president of the Sudan Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission, which served as an advisory board to Mr. al-Bashir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abdelgauoom Shareef, who worked on the former regime\u2019s efforts to get American sanctions lifted, said he had been briefed by a member of the military council now ruling the country who confirmed that Mr. al-Bashir had been imprisoned on its orders. The council member said two of Mr. al-Bashir\u2019s brothers were also arrested, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political dissidents and opposition figures have often ended up at Kober prison, site of some of the country\u2019s most notorious\u00a0hangings<\/a>. The Reuters news agency reported that the former president was being held in solitary confinement, citing an unidentified prison official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, Kober has been one of the prisons used to hold demonstrators arrested in the\u00a0protests demanding Mr. al-Bashir\u2019s ouster<\/a>. One of them said in an interview that he had been locked up in a small unit with more than 20 other men, the floor so cramped that there was room to lie down only if they slept on their sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The possibility that Mr. al-Bashir could slip away to a comfortable exile had preoccupied many who helped bring about his downfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some in Sudan had assumed that he was being held under house arrest at his residence, within a larger military compound. But among the demonstrators, rumors abounded that Mr. al-Bashir was living with relatives or that his ouster was a ruse and he was still calling the shots, only now in secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last known sighting of him before he was ousted seems to have been on April 5, when he attended a political event<\/a> at the presidential palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The generals who deposed Mr. al-Bashir did so in response to enormous street demonstrations calling for the end of his regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throngs of demonstrators still remain just outside the gates of military headquarters, although in smaller numbers than last week. They are demanding that the generals now in charge hand over \u2014 or at least share \u2014 power with a civilian government that has yet to be formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling generals, who have formed what they are calling a Transitional Military Council, have said that they will not extradite Mr. al-Bashir to be tried by the international court, and that he will be tried in Sudan instead. But there has already been a quick turnover in the generals assuming control, so it is not clear whether the edicts they announce will stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The generals have said they intend to hand power over to a civilian government, but that may take as long as two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council also announced that it was taking steps to recover \u2014 or at least identify \u2014 assets that members of the old regime may have tried to steal in the final days of Mr. al-Bashir\u2019s rule. On Wednesday, according to news reports, the council ordered the central bank to seize \u201csuspect\u201d funds associated with any recent transfers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Shareef, who was secretary-general of the lobbying group Sudanese-American Council for Peace and Development, complained that the arrest of Mr. al-Bashir was made to appease the protesters. The businessmen who played a large role in funding Mr. al-Bashir\u2019s regime have not been affected, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is just to make the protesters feel good,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the ones with the big money are still free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Shareef said Sudan was undergoing change at such a pace that even its new military rulers were struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, we have a brand-new country,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody knows anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The council appears eager for the revolutionary moment to be over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has publicly claimed to be leading Sudan\u2019s transitional council, said in a phone call with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, that \u201clife in Sudan returned to normality,\u201d according to the state news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is not quite true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many protesters say they are committed to putting pressure on the military council \u2014 and will call for renewed demonstrations \u2014 until the military transfers at least some power to civilians, which has yet to happen. The protesters have voiced concerns that unless they are vigilant, the generals will try to outmaneuver them and thwart a transition to democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other countries, too, are beginning to apply pressure to the military junta. The African Union\u2019s Peace and Security Council has told the generals they have two weeks to transfer power to a \u201ctransitional civilian-led political authority,\u201d or face suspension from the African Union, according to news reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And a top European Union official, Federica Mogherini, has said<\/a> the union will not \u201crecognize the legitimacy of the Transitional Military Council\u201d until the transitional government is \u201cmanaged by civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has not been seen since he was deposed as Sudan\u2019s president last week, has been moved to a prison in the capital where he once confined those who challenged his nearly 30-year rule, according to two former advisers. The throngs of Sudanese protesters who forced the ouster of Mr. al-Bashir last Thursday have demanded that he be arrested… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[138],"class_list":["post-3630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-new-york-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3631,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions\/3631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/subsaharanafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}