Recommendations for Broad Legal Powers to Dismantle Ousted Bashir Regime in Sudan

Protesters call for civil rule during a rally in Khartoum, February 8. (AFP)
Protesters call for civil rule during a rally in Khartoum, February 8. (AFP)
TT

Recommendations for Broad Legal Powers to Dismantle Ousted Bashir Regime in Sudan

Protesters call for civil rule during a rally in Khartoum, February 8. (AFP)
Protesters call for civil rule during a rally in Khartoum, February 8. (AFP)

A conference in Sudan on Monday recommended special legal amendments to uproot Muslim Brotherhood elements from the army, security forces, police, and the Rapid Support Forces.

The conference was focused on removing traces of the regime of ouster President Omar al-Bashir.

Purging the country’s apparatuses from the influence of the former regime must be done according to clear and specific mechanisms discussed in covered in security and military reforms.

Moreover, members of the dissolved National Congress Party, which was headed by Bashir, will receive referrals for their removal from all state institutions.

After Islamists rose to power through a military coup in 1989, they pursued a policy of empowering loyalists in all state institutions, especially the military, civil service, judiciary, and public prosecution.

To accomplish this, the Islamists dismissed thousands of employees and replaced them with members of the political Islam movement and loyalists.

The conference further stressed the need for imposing penalties on all those convicted of financial and administrative corruption during Bashir’s totalitarian rule, which lasted three decades.

Moreover, the conference stressed the need to rid the justice system and law enforcement mechanisms from the influence of Bashir’s followers.

It recommended the confiscation of assets and companies associated with the ousted regime. This included security companies.

The conference advised that amendments be made to the law to dismantle Bashir’s regime, provided that the changes guarantee basic rights, stages of litigation and appeal, and observance of the principles of justice and the absence of impunity.

It also called for the establishment of a special prosecution to provide transitional justice guarantees and the formation of a special court with one degree of review, whose decisions are binding and final.

Organized by the United Nations, the African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), the conference held a four-day workshop between January 9-12.

Signatories to the framework agreement, stakeholders, and experts in national and international law in the field of dismantling political systems participated in the event.



Lebanon Security Source Says Hezbollah Official Targeted in Beirut Strike

Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
TT

Lebanon Security Source Says Hezbollah Official Targeted in Beirut Strike

Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Civil defense members work as Lebanese army soldiers stand guard at the site of an Israeli strike in Beirut's Basta neighbourhood, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, Lebanon November 23, 2024. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi

A Lebanese security source said the target of a deadly Israeli airstrike on central Beirut early Saturday was a senior Hezbollah official, adding it was unclear whether he was killed.

"The Israeli strike on Basta targeted a leading Hezbollah figure," the security official told AFP without naming the figure, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The early morning airstrike has killed at least 11 people and injured 63, according to authorities, and had brought down an eight-storey building nearby, in the second such attack on the working-class neighbourhood of Basta in as many months.

"The strike was so strong it felt like the building was about to fall on our heads," said Samir, 60, who lives with his family in a building facing the one that was hit.

"It felt like they had targeted my house," he said, asking to be identified by only his first name because of security concerns.

There had been no evacuation warning issued by the Israeli military for the Basta area.

After the strike, Samir fled his home in the middle of the night with his wife and two children, aged 14 and just three.

On Saturday morning, dumbstruck residents watched as an excavator cleared the wreckage of the razed building and rescue efforts continued, with nearby buildings also damaged in the attack, AFP journalists reported.

The densely packed district has welcomed people displaced from traditional Hezbollah bastions in Lebanon's east, south and southern Beirut, after Israel intensified its air campaign on September 23, later sending in ground troops.

"We saw two dead people on the ground... The children started crying and their mother cried even more," Samir told AFP, reporting minor damage to his home.

Since last Sunday, four deadly Israeli strikes have hit central Beirut, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.

Residents across the city and its outskirts awoke at 0400 (0200 GMT) on Saturday to loud explosions and the smell of gunpowder in the air.

"It was the first time I've woken up screaming in terror," said Salah, a 35-year-old father of two who lives in the same street as the building that was targeted.

"Words can't express the fear that gripped me," he said.

Saturday's strikes were the second time the Basta district had been targeted since war broke out, after deadly twin strikes early in October hit the area and the Nweiri neighbourhood.

Last month's attacks killed 22 people and had targeted Hezbollah security chief Wafiq Safa, who made it out alive, a source close to the group told AFP.

Salah said his wife and children had been in the northern city of Tripoli, about 70 kilometres away (45 miles), but that he had to stay in the capital because of work.

His family had been due to return this weekend because their school reopens on Monday, but now he has decided against it following the attack.

"I miss them. Every day they ask me: 'Dad, when are we coming home?'" he said.

Lebanon's health ministry says that more than 3,650 people have been killed since October 2023, after Hezbollah initiated exchanges of fire with Israel in solidarity with its Iran-backed ally Hamas over the Gaza war.

However, most of the deaths in Lebanon have been since September this year.

Despite the trauma caused by Saturday's strike, Samir said he and his family had no choice but to return home.

"Where else would I go?" he asked.

"All my relatives and siblings have been displaced from Beirut's southern suburbs and from the south."