Bashir’s Wife Faces Charges of Illicit Enrichment

Bashir’s second wife, Widad Babiker. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Bashir’s second wife, Widad Babiker. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
TT

Bashir’s Wife Faces Charges of Illicit Enrichment

Bashir’s second wife, Widad Babiker. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Bashir’s second wife, Widad Babiker. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Sudan’s Public Prosecution has completed investigations into several financial corruption cases and premeditated murder committed during the rule of ousted President Omar al-Bashir. Some lawsuits involve Bashir’s second wife, Widad Babiker, and other leaders who served his regime.

Sudan’s attorney general, Mubarak Mahmoud, has received from the Unlawful and Suspicious Enrichment prosecution the results of investigations led into four cases against prominent figures in the former regime, announced the Public Prosecution in a statement on Wednesday.

Other than Babiker, the cases involve the former governor of Khartoum, the former minister of urban planning, and the ex-official charged with the commission for distributing state revenues.

For Babiker, she faces charges of transgressing and unlawfully owning residential lands and real estate. Babiker has been under house arrest since her release from custody due to health reasons.

In other news, the attorney general visited the new Khartoum prosecution headquarters for empowerment removal and fund recovery and the prosecution headquarters of information crimes and digital investigations.

Mubarak Mahmoud, while inspecting the facilities, reviewed obstacles faced by authorities.

The head of the empowerment removal and funds recovery prosecution, Al-Amthal Abdelfattah, explained that the visit confirms the attorney general’s interest in the progress of work in all prosecutions.

Abdelfattah confirmed that his department, despite being new, is conducting investigations into a large number of lawsuits and that it has recently referred four cases involving suspects who are accused of activities and actions that undermine the constitution.



Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
TT

Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)

Italy's foreign minister says a moratorium on European Union sanctions on Syria could help encourage the country's transition after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad by opposition groups.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Syria on Friday and expressed Italy’s keen interest in helping Syria recover from civil war, rebuild its broken economy and help stabilize the region.

Tajani, who met with Syria’s new de facto leaders, including Ahmed al-Sharaa, said a stable Syria and Lebanon was of strategic and commercial importance to Europe.

He said the fall of Assad's government, as well as the Lebanon parliament's vote on Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as president, were signs of optimism for Middle East stability.

He said Italy wanted to play a leading role in Syria’s recovery and serve as a bridge between Damascus and the EU, particularly given Italy’s commercial and strategic interests in the Mediterranean.

“The Mediterranean can no longer just be a sea of death, a cemetery of migrants but a sea of commerce a sea of development,” he said.

Tajani later traveled to Lebanon and met with Aoun. Italy has long played a sizeable role in the UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon, UNIFIL.

On the eve of his visit, Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from Britain, France and Germany as well as the EU foreign policy chief. He said that meeting of the so-called Quintet on Syria was key to begin the discussion about a change to the EU sanctions.

“The sanctions were against the Assad regime. If the situation has changed, we have to change our choices,” Tajani said.