Trial of Sudan’s Bashir Adjourned after Aide Contracts COVID-19

Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir arriving for trial in Khartoum on July 21, 2020. (AFP)
Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir arriving for trial in Khartoum on July 21, 2020. (AFP)
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Trial of Sudan’s Bashir Adjourned after Aide Contracts COVID-19

Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir arriving for trial in Khartoum on July 21, 2020. (AFP)
Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir arriving for trial in Khartoum on July 21, 2020. (AFP)

The trial of ousted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was adjourned on Tuesday after one of his aides contracted the coronavirus.

Bashir and others are standing trial for plotting the 1989 coup. The session has been rescheduled to March 9.

In a statement obtained by Asharq Al-Awsat on Tuesday, spokesman for the prosecution, lawyer Moaz Hadra, said the weekly scheduled session was postponed after the court received a medical report from the Royal Care Hospital in Khartoum stating that Nafie Ali Nafie had tested positive for coronavirus.

The judge also decided to limit the number of people at the court hearings as a health precaution.

Bashir and 27 of his collaborators are on trial for participating and plotting the June 30, 1989 coup, which brought him to power, against the democratically elected government of premier Sadek al-Mahdi. They could all face the death penalty if convicted.

The man dubbed the true brain behind the military overthrow, Hassan Turabi of the National Islamic Front, died in 2016.

In May 2019, the Public Prosecution filed a suit against the group, which organized and participated in the coup, and charged them in accordance with the Sudanese criminal law prevailing at the time.

It accused them all of undermining the existing constitutional order and democracy in the country.

The defense demanded that the charges be dropped and that the case be dismissed. However, the court rejected the request and considered the coup an “ongoing” crime.



Israel Demolishes Seven Palestinian Homes in East Jerusalem

A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Demolishes Seven Palestinian Homes in East Jerusalem

A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)
A picture shows a view of the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex (top L) across from the Arab town of Silwan on the hill with its al-Bustan neighborhood (C) in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem on November 5, 2024. (AFP)

Municipal workers began demolishing seven homes in occupied east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood on Tuesday, Palestinian residents and the municipality said, after an Israeli court called their construction illegal.

"This morning the Jerusalem Municipality, with a security escort from the Israel police, began its enforcement against illegal buildings in the Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan," Jerusalem's Israeli-controlled city hall said in a statement.

Activist Fakhri Abu Diab, one of those affected by the demolition, confirmed that "at least seven homes have been demolished, and the operation is ongoing".

He said that both houses and apartments were affected.

"They demolished my home, which I had renovated after it was previously demolished earlier this year, as well as my son's house, Haitham Ayed's family home, and four homes belonging to the Al-Ruwaidi family," Abu Diab told AFP.

He said around "40 people, including children, were affected by the demolitions in the neighborhood, leaving them homeless".

An AFP photographer saw at least four bulldozers operating on Tuesday at demolition sites in the neighborhood under tight Israeli police supervision.

In a statement, Jerusalem city hall pointed to court orders that call for the demolition of the buildings due to zoning laws that make them illegal.

However, Palestinian residents and activists accuse the municipality of concealing its true intentions.

"The buildings, like most of the buildings in the neighborhood, are located on an area that is a green designation, that is, an open public area and where there is no possibility for zoning," the municipality said, adding that the area would become a green zone instead.

Abu Diab said the true aim of the demolitions was "to reduce the percentage of Arabs and alter the demographic composition of Jerusalem in favor of (Israeli) settlers", connecting them to west Jerusalem.

Israel "is above international law, has escaped accountability, and is exploiting global focus on the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and the US elections", he said.

Israel occupied east Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed it in a move not recognized by the international community.

Some 230,000 Israeli settlers live in east Jerusalem, according to the United Nations. Another 3,000 live in Palestinian neighborhoods within east Jerusalem's boundaries, according to Israeli rights organization Peace Now.