Sudan Prosecutes Former Regime Officials on Corruption, Murder Charges

A trial session for former President Omar Al-Bashir and members of his regime in Khartoum in January. (AFP)
A trial session for former President Omar Al-Bashir and members of his regime in Khartoum in January. (AFP)
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Sudan Prosecutes Former Regime Officials on Corruption, Murder Charges

A trial session for former President Omar Al-Bashir and members of his regime in Khartoum in January. (AFP)
A trial session for former President Omar Al-Bashir and members of his regime in Khartoum in January. (AFP)

The Sudanese Public Prosecution announced it was taking legal action against a new group of former officials of ousted President Omar al-Bashir's regime on charges of murder, corruption and torture.

The Public Prosecution referred five cases of murder during protests in Atbara city to the judiciary, which will set date for the trials.

It also completed its investigations into an incident where a detainee was tortured to death by the Rapid Support Forces in December. The report will be referred to the judiciary within days.

Attorney General, Tajelsir El Hibir, received the forensic reports on the autopsy of exhumed bodies of the Kajbar Dam martyrs, and the incident was documented as a criminal association and premeditated murder.

The Kajbar Dam events date back to 2007 when members of the security forces of the former regime shot dead four people during a peaceful march denouncing the construction of the dam, which was threatening to inundate their areas.

Former finance ministers, Ali Mahmoud Abdel-Rasoul and Al-Zubair Ahmed al-Hassan, who was the Secretary-General of the Islamic Movement, among others, are facing corruption charges relating to their selling of the state's River Transport Authority, according to the prosecution's statement.

The prosecution also charged ministers Awad Ahmed al-Jaz and Abdel Halim al-Mutafi along with others with corruption charges in the case of the Mashkour Sugar Company. Former governor, al-Haji Atta Al-Mannan was also indicted in corruption charges in the case of the AlNile Bank.

The Prosecution's office of Crimes Against the State and Counterterrorism issued 34 reports against former officials for using foreign currencies outside the banking system, and their involvement in counterfeiting networks.

Since the toppling of Bashir and the establishment of the transitional government, the Prosecution has been working on several cases and reports to hold the regime accountable for its crimes.

The ousted president was convicted of corruption, and his comrades are under trial for plotting the 1989 coup that overthrew the elected democratic government led by the late Prime Minister al-Sadiq al-Mahdi.



Israeli Army Bombards Homes in North Gaza, Airstrike Kills 15, Medics Say

A Palestinian boy inspects the destruction at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy inspects the destruction at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)
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Israeli Army Bombards Homes in North Gaza, Airstrike Kills 15, Medics Say

A Palestinian boy inspects the destruction at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)
A Palestinian boy inspects the destruction at the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on December 2, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group. (AFP)

Israeli forces bombarded houses in overnight attacks in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people in one of the buildings in the town of Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics said on Monday.

Several others were wounded in the attack and others were missing after a house providing shelter to displaced people was struck, with rescue workers unable immediately to reach them, the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said.

The three barely operational hospitals in the area were unable to cope with the number of wounded, they added.

Clusters of houses were bombed and some set ablaze in Jabalia and in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, where the Israeli army has been operating for several weeks, residents said.

They said Israeli drones had dropped bombs outside a school sheltering displaced families, suggesting this was intended to scare them into leaving.

The Palestinians say Israel's army is trying to clear people out of the northern edge of Gaza with forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone. The Israeli army denies this.

The Israeli military, which began its offensive against Hamas in Gaza after the group's attack on southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, has said its latest operations in northern Gaza are meant to prevent militants regrouping and waging attacks from those areas.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,400 people and displaced most of the population, Gaza officials say. Vast swathes of the enclave lie in ruins.

About 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage in the Hamas attack on the October 2023 attack on Israel, according to Israeli tallies.

NEW CEASEFIRE PUSH

Israel agreed a ceasefire with the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah last week, but the conflict in Gaza has continued.

Officials in Cairo have hosted talks between Hamas and the rival Fatah group led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the possible establishment of a committee to run post-war Gaza.

Egypt has proposed that a committee made up of non-partisan technocrat figures, and supervised by Abbas's authority, should be ready to run Gaza straight after the war ends. Israel has said Hamas should have no role in governance.

An official close to the talks said progress had been made but no final deal had been reached. Israel's approval would be decisive in determining whether the committee could fulfill its role. Egyptian security officials have also held talks with Hamas on ways to reach a ceasefire with Israel.

A Palestinian official close to the mediation effort told Reuters Hamas stood by its condition that any agreement must bring an end to the war and involve an Israeli troop withdrawal out, but would show the flexibility needed to achieve that.

Israel has said the war will end only when Hamas no longer governs Gaza and poses no threat to Israelis.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Sunday there was some indication of progress towards a hostage deal but that Israel's conditions for ending the war had not changed.

White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan said he thought the chances of a ceasefire and hostage deal were now more likely.