In Sudan, the trial of the dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir postponed until August 11

The hour of judgment has come in Sudan. The trial of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir began on Tuesday July 21 in Khartoum. The deposed dictator is on trial for his coup d'état in 1989 against the democratic government of Prime Minister Sadeq al-Mahdi. Dismissed in 2019, the prisoner, now 76 years old, faces the death penalty. 

The first hearing lasted only one hour because the room could not accommodate all the protagonists. The three-judge special court has set August 11 as the next hearing. The 76-year-old ex-autocrat and 27 other defendants were grouped together in cages, along with former vice-presidents Ali Osman Taha and General Bakri Hassan Saleh. Among them are soldiers and civilians.

"A huge trial"

Exceptional security measures have been taken to avoid any incident. The families of the accused, who had come in large numbers, shouted at the arrival of the cellular vans "Allah Akhbar". Omar al-Bashir, in beige pants and shirt, wore a mask and gloves and hid his face in front of the photographers. He made no statement.

"It is a huge trial that is opening and it is surprising to see that Sudan is giving itself such a gigantic ambition with so little preparation, believes Marc Lavergne, research director at the CNRS and specialist in Sudan. I doubt that" there has been sufficient instruction with numerous witnesses to answer the many questions that the Sudanese are asking themselves. They have endured this regime for thirty years. An expeditious justice is likely to generate many frustrations. "

An unprecedented, historic, extraordinary trial

This trial still has the merit of being unprecedented in many ways. First, because never in the recent history of the Arab world has the author of a successful putsch been tried. Then because Omar al-Bashir will be tried by a special court composed of three judges. Finally, the trial promises to be extraordinary in terms of the scope of its defense: no less than 191 lawyers will defend the accused.  

In the box of the defendants, a great absentee to report: the mastermind of the coup, the Islamist Hassan al-Tourabi, long mentor of Bashir, died in 2016. But for Marc Lavergne, there are many other absentees. "Omar al-Bashir was not the decision-maker of the coup. It was a collective conspiracy. He was also taken for a fool when he started. About fifty people were running his regime. All were decision-makers. Among them ideologues, soldiers or police officers who do not seem to be worried today. This gives the feeling that we are dumping history under the carpet. "

This lawsuit is "a warning"

The trial of Omar al-Bashir and 27 co-defendants comes as Sudan's post-revolutionary transitional government has launched a series of reforms in the hope of fully joining the international community. But some wonder about the temporality of this trial. "The country is experiencing a situation of great poverty worsened by the Covid-19 health crisis and one can ask if the Sudanese government does not have other priorities as it tries to negotiate with the rebel movements of the States from Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile. "

This is not the opinion of civil party lawyers. In a country which has experienced three coups d'état since its independence in 1956 - that of General Ibrahim Abboud (1959-1964), then that led in 1969 by Colonel Gaafar Mohammad Nimeiri, in power until 1985, and finally the coup d'etat of Omar al-Bashir - it seems on the contrary necessary to judge the putchists in order to dissuade the ardor of possible rebels. "This trial will be a warning to anyone who tries to destroy the constitutional system and will be tried for this crime. This will safeguard Sudanese democracy. We hope in this way to end the era of the putsch in Sudan", pleaded Moaz Hadra, one of the lawyers. at the origin of the proceedings against the deposed dictator. 

"A political trial"

Unsurprisingly, the defense denounces for its part "a political trial hidden behind the law. This trial will take place in a hostile environment from the judicial system towards the accused and we will be able to prove it". At the same time, the lawyer also highlights the political record of Omar al-Bashir, who in 2005 signed a peace agreement with the rebels of the South backed by the UN, the Arab League, the European Union and the Union. African. Finally, the defense believes that the trial is unnecessary because the facts took place more than 10 years ago. 

Omar al-Bashir was ousted from power in April 2019 after months of protests in Sudan, which government security forces violently suppressed, killing hundreds. The new authorities have said they will cooperate with the ICC.

At the end of this trial, many questions are likely to remain unresolved. What are the responsibilities? What was the degree of sincerity vis-à-vis Islamism? "Not sure that we get many answers in these conditions", admits, skeptical, Marc Lavergne. During his first appearance, Omar al-Bashir did not make any statement. 

These are all questions that the ICC may in turn be able to resolve. Because Bashir will not be done with justice at the end of his trial in Khartoum: Sudan has also committed to handing him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) so that he can be tried for war crimes and genocide in the context of the conflict in Darfur in 2003-2004, which left 300,000 dead and millions displaced. 

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