Sudan’s Bashir gave over $5m to paramilitary force
Sudan’s ousted leader Omar al-Bashir gave more than $5 million to a paramilitary group, a defence witness said Saturday, apparently backing claims made by the autocrat at a previous session of his graft trial.
Bashir was deposed by the army in April following months of protests against his iron-fisted rule.
In August, he was charged with the illegal acquisition and use of foreign funds -- offences that could land him behind bars for more than a decade.
Authorities had seized 6.9 million euros, $351,770 and 5.7 million Sudanese pounds (around $128,000) from Bashir’s home “which he acquired and used illegally”, a judge told the court on August 31.
But Bashir said the seized funds were the remainder of the equivalent of $25 million received from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The funds, he said, were part of Sudan’s strategic relations with Saudi Arabia and were “not used for private interests but as donations”.
On Saturday, at the trial’s fourth session, the defence team presented two witnesses, including a former aide, who appeared to back the ousted leader’s claim.
General Yasser Bashir told the court Bashir gave “five million euros” ($5.6 million) to the country’s Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.
He said the funds were picked up in cash by Abdelrahim Daglo, the brother of RSF commander Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the deputy head of the military council that took over after Bashir’s ouster.
“They did not give me a receipt,” he added.
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