Ousted Sudan president to be sent for trial soon, prosecutor says

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FILE PHOTO: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir delivers a speech inside Parliament in Khartoum, Sudan April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan’s chief prosecutor said on Saturday that ousted President Omar al-Bashir would be sent for trial soon on corruption charges related to his three decades in power.

Alwaleed Sayed Ahmed Mahmoud told a news conference the trial referral would be made after a one-week period for objections expires, adding that criminal cases have been opened against 41 other former officials accused of graft.

The prosecutor’s office said on Thursday that Bashir, who was ousted by the military in April following months of protests against his 30-year autocratic rule, had been charged with corruption after an investigation was completed.

The charges are related to laws on “suspected illicit wealth and emergency orders,” the office said, without giving more details.

Bashir had already been charged in May with incitement and involvement in the killing of protesters. Prosecutors also ordered his interrogation on suspicion of money laundering and terrorism financing.

Mahmoud also said he had attended a meeting with military heads to discuss judicial supervision of a plan to clear what he called “criminals” from an area adjacent to a protest camp in the center of the capital.

But the idea of dispersing the protesters was not discussed, he added.

The country’s military rulers said on Thursday they had thwarted several coup attempts and that some officers had been arrested over the deadly dispersal of protesters at a sit-in in Khartoum earlier this month.

Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Helen Popper

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Sister of former Pakistani president ordered held in graft probe

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ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani anti-corruption authorities ordered one of the leaders of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party to be confined to her residence on Friday as they continued an anti-graft crackdown that critics say is aimed at stifling dissent.

The National Accountability Board (NAB) ordered Faryal Talpur, sister of former President Asif Ali Zardari, to be confined to her residence in Islamabad in connection with a case of suspected money laundering through fake bank accounts.

An NAB spokesman said Faryal Talpur had been ordered to remain in her house. He said she would be attended by female police officers and her treatment should not be described as an arrest.

The move follows the arrest earlier this week of Zardari, widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed in a 2007 suicide attack and whose father, PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, also served as president and prime minister.

The government has denied any role in the arrest of Zardari and says the NAB operates independently. But the crackdown has prompted an angry response from PPP officials, including Zardari’s son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

“We will have to go out into the streets and show people how their rights are being taken away,” Bhutto Zardari told a hastily called news conference. “We can see in these days that the rule of law is not being applied.”

As well as Zardari, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is also in jail on corruption charges.

Reporting by Sheree Sardar, Saad Sayeed and James Mackenzie; Editing by Peter Graff

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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