Sudan: Bashir’s family appoints 4 lawyers for his defense

The family of the deposed Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir has appointed four lawyers to defend him before the country’s public prosecution against accusations of “money laundering and possession of large sums of foreign currency without legal grounds,”

A source from the family told Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) that the hired lawyers included the former parliament speaker, Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Raher and the former Sudanese defense ministers Abdel Basit Sabderat and Omar Abdul Ati.

“Some 50 lawmakers have expressed readiness to defend Bashir,” the source pointed out.

Read: Sudan: Protesters close a main street in Khartoum

Local media recently reported that the Sudanese public prosecution had questioned Bashir last Thursday in the absence of a defence lawyer, noting that it had justified the move “as a preliminary probe to assess the available data and to decide on whether to open an investigation and call for a lawyer.”

The move comes as Bashir has acknowledged the charges addressed against him by the state authorities. He was accused of “organising a coup against the legitimate government in 1989.”

Bashir was removed from office by the Sudanese army following months of popular protests against his 30-year rule. A Military Transitional Council (MTC) is now overseeing a two-year “transitional phase” during which it has pledged to hold free presidential elections.

Demonstrators, however, have remained on the streets to demand that the MTC hand over power – at the earliest possible date – to an elected civilian government.