Hamdok Calls on Sudanese Judiciary to Expedite Prosecution of Former Regime Leaders 

August 22, 2020 

(KHARTOUM) - Sudanese Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok Saturday called on the judiciary to speed up procedures for trying the leaders of the ousted regime.

Hamdok made is call in a speech delivered on the first anniversary of his appointment, in a bid to contain the growing popular frustration about the delay in the trial of the leaders of the former regime accused of war crimes, atrocities and grave violations.

"More than 35 investigation committees are working on various cases, and the trials of leaders of the Bashir regime are taking place frequently," he said.

"This is why these trials must be expedited. These trials and those related to corruption cases," he further stressed.

The leaders of al-Bashir’s regime appear from time to time before courts under accusations of corruption, and proceedings have also begun for their prosecution for their involvement in the coup against the democratic regime in 1989.

Hamdok further reiterated his government’s readiness to "fully cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to facilitate access to those accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity," he said in his televised speech

Al-Bashir and some of his aides and militia leaders are wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur where an estimated 300,000 people died during the years of the counterinsurgency war carried by the government forces and Janjaweed militiamen.

Military businesses

Hamdok further announced that with the agreement of all transitional authority structures his government began modifying the status of companies belonging to the security and military sectors to be under the authority of the government.

"The restitution of economic companies belonging to the security and military sectors is a top priority for the government and to restore the control of the Ministry of Finance over public funds," he said.

The Sudanese army and security service control over 200 companies operating in various vital areas belonging without paying taxes or customs, and without supplying their profits to the public treasury.

The continued absence of control over these tax-exempted military businesses resulted in the government’s inability to manage their liquidity and employ it according to the priorities and needs of the Sudanese economy.

In a statement released on 19 July, the former Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Badawi insinuated that Hamdok was not enthusiastic to control of the military-economic activities that much of Sudanese support.

(ST)