Khartoum (AFP)

The ousted President Omar al-Bashir, who headed Sudan for three decades, arrived here on Monday in a court in Khartoum, where he must be tried for corruption, an AFP journalist said.

The former head of state, filed by the army on April 11 in response to massive demonstrations, arrived in the morning in front of the court, escorted by an imposing military convoy, according to the same source. His trial was scheduled to start on Saturday, but it was postponed indefinitely.

Bashir, 75, detained in a Khartoum prison, has been told by the prosecution that he faces charges of "possessing foreign currency, bribery" and "illegally receiving gifts".

In late April, the head of the Transitional Military Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, claimed that the equivalent of more than $ 113 million had been seized in cash at the former president's residence in Khartoum.

He said police, army and security agents found seven million euros, $ 350,000 and five billion Sudanese pounds (93 million euros) during the search.

In May, the Attorney General also stated that Mr. Bashir had been charged with killings during the anti-regime protests that ultimately led to his ouster, but it was unclear when he would be charged.

Protests against Bashir's regime broke out on December 19 after his government tripled the price of bread, and quickly took a political turn. They continued after the fall of Omar al-Bashir on April 11, in order to obtain a transfer of power to civilians, and eventually resulted in an agreement signed Saturday between the ruling generals and the protest.

The most serious indictments against Bashir, who led the country with an iron fist after a coup in 1989, are those of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague.

These are war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, for his role in the war in Darfur, where a rebellion broke out in 2003.

The UN says that the conflict has left more than 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced, and that hundreds of thousands of people still live in miserable and impoverished camps more than a decade and a half later.

The ICC has been demanding for years that Mr. Bashir be tried, and has renewed his appeal since his fall.

In a statement released last week, Amnesty International warned that its corruption trial should not distract from the heavier accusations it faces in The Hague.

© 2019 AFP