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.



Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

 A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

 A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)

An Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in a coastal town south of Beirut killed at least one person, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The ministry said 20 others were wounded in the strike Tuesday in Jiyeh, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the port of Sidon.

The attack hit an area that has not been a regular target of Israeli military operations and had not received prior evacuation warnings.

“It felt like it was inside the house,” Malika Al Hajj, an elderly woman living in the area, told The Associated Press. “I ran away — I don’t even know which neighbor brought me out, because everything was black. You couldn’t see anything.”

Once outside, Hajj said she discovered that the strike had hit the nearby building where her nephews live.

“Men, women and children” live inside, she said. “I just want to be reassured. I saw some of them, but the others, they told me, were taken to the hospital."

At the site of the strike, the building’s skeletal frame stands amid the rubble, its concrete shattered, windows blown out and metal twisted from the impact.

Families were seen leaving the area, carrying what belongings they could gather.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 3,013 people and injured 13,553 others since Oct. 2023, the Lebanese government said on Tuesday.