Ousted Bashir to be grilled

Sudan’s prosecutor general has ordered the questioning of ousted president Omar al-Bashir over money-laundering and “financing terrorism”, the official SUNA news agency said on Thursday.

“The acting public prosecutor general Al-Waleed Sayyed Ahmed has ordered the questioning of former president Omar al-Bashir... under anti-money laundering and financing terrorism laws,” SUNA said.

A source in the prosecutor general’s office confirmed the state media report to AFP.

Bashir, who swept to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades.

During his rule the country was placed on Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism over its alleged links with Islamist militants.

Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan between 1992 to 1996.

In October 2017, Washington lifted a 20-year-old trade embargo imposed on Sudan, but kept the country on the terrorism blacklist.

Since last year however the two countries have been in talks to remove the country from the blacklist, but these have now been suspended since Bashir was ousted by the army on April 11.

Last month Sudan’s army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said that more than 113 million dollars worth of cash in three currencies had been seized from Bashir’s residence.