Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. He is set to be questioned over financial misdeeds. PHOTO | ASHRAF SHAZLY | AFP
Sudan's prosecutor general has ordered the questioning of ousted
president Omar al-Bashir over money-laundering and "financing
terrorism", the official SUNA news agency said on Thursday.
"The
acting public prosecutor general Al-Waleed Sayyed Ahmed has ordered the
questioning of former president Omar al-Bashir... under anti-money
laundering and financing terrorism laws," SUNA said.
A source in the prosecutor general's office confirmed the state media report to AFP.
Bashir, who swept to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, ruled Sudan with an iron fist for three decades.
During
his rule the country was placed on Washington's list of state sponsors
of terrorism over its alleged links with Islamist militants.
Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan between 1992 to 1996.
BLACKLIST
In October 2017,
Washington lifted a 20-year-old trade embargo imposed on Sudan, but kept
the country on the terrorism blacklist.
Since last
year however the two countries have been in talks to remove the country
from the blacklist, but these have now been suspended since Bashir was
ousted by the army on April 11.
"That is a conversation
that we are not able to engage at the moment," a top State Department
official, Makila James, told AFP last month during her visit to
Khartoum.
"All of that is suspended as we try to assess what is the reality on the ground, what is the way forward," she said.
Last
month Sudan's army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said that more
than 113 million dollars worth of cash in three currencies had been
seized from Bashir's residence.
He said a team of
police, army and security agents found seven million euros ($7.8
million), $350,000 and five billion Sudanese pounds ($105 million)
during a search at Bashir's home.
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