Saudi Royals Pumped Al-Bashir With $90M, Ousted Sudanese President’s Corruption Trial Hears

Riyaz Patel

Sudan’s former president, Omar al-Bashir, allegedly received $90 million in cash from Saudi royals, an investigator told the deposed Sudanese leader’s corruption trial which opened in Khartoum Monday.

The former president, who was forced from power in April after 30 years in power, looked relaxed as sat in a metal cage wearing a traditional white robe.

His relatives chanted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) as proceedings got under way in the Khartoum court where he arrived amid a heavy security presence.

The deposed leader faces charges related to “possessing foreign currency, corruption and receiving gifts illegally.”

Prosecutors have also opened other criminal investigations against al-Bashir, including, charges of ‘money laundering,’ ‘financing terrorism’ and ‘ordering the killing of protesters’ – the latter an offence that carries the death penalty in Sudan. 

Large amounts of cash were found at this residence after he was toppled.

“The accused told us that the money was part of a sum of $25 million sent to him by Prince Mohammed bin Salman to be used outside of the state budget,” investigator Ahmed Ali said.

Bashir had also reportedly said that he received two previous tranches of $35 million and $30 million from the late Saudi King Abdullah who died in 2015, according to Ali.

“This money was not part of the state budget and I was the one who authorised its spending,” the investigator quoted Bashir as saying.

Bashir had said the Saudi money was exchanged and spent and that he could not remember how nor did he have documents providing further details, the investigator added.

Bashir looked calm during the nearly three-hour session, with the next hearing scheduled for August 24.

In May, Sudan’s prosecutor general also said Bashir had been charged over killings during the anti-regime protests which eventually led to his ouster.

London-based rights group Amnesty International has warned however that the corruption trial should not distract from his Darfur indictments.

“While this trial is a positive step towards accountability for some of his alleged crimes, he remains wanted for heinous crimes committed against the Sudanese people,” Amnesty said.

The rights organisation urged the country’s new transitional institutions to ratify the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Rome Statute, a move that would allow for his transfer to the international tribunal.

The Hague-based ICC has for years demanded that Bashir stand trial, and has renewed its call since his fall.

Sudan is not a signatory to the ICC statute.

At a hearing in 2017, South Africa, who was reprimanded for not acting on an ICC warrant when al-Bashir visited the country in 2015, said the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, does not oblige authorities to arrest heads of state of countries that are not members of the court, such as Sudan.

Dire Tladi told judges that “there is no duty under international law in general, and in particular under the Rome Statute, on South Africa to arrest a serving head of a non-state party.”

The head of Bashir’s defence team, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Tahir, said in July the ousted leader’s trial had no “political background.”

“It is an absolute criminal case with a baseless accusation.”

It was the sudden tripling of bread prices in December that sparked the mushrooming protests which led to the toppling of Bashir by the army in April.

The trial coincided with the establishment of a joint civilian and military sovereign council that will steer the country of 40 million through a 39-month transition.

The line-up had been expected to be announced on Sunday but it was delayed after one of the five nominees put forward by the opposition alliance representing protest leaders turned down the job.

The ruling sovereign council will be composed of 11 members including six civilians and five from the military.

It will be headed by a general for the first 21 months and by a civilian for the remaining 18 months.

The council will oversee the formation of a transitional civilian administration including a cabinet and a legislative body.

The accord was signed Saturday at a ceremony attended by a host of foreign dignitaries.