Sudan's public prosecutor has ordered the interrogation of ousted President Omar al-Bashir on charges of "money laundering and financing terrorism."

Al-Bashir was removed from power and arrested by Sudan's military on April 11 after months of protest against his 30-year rule. The military and opposition leaders are now in the process of setting up a transitional government.

Under al-Bashir's regime, Sudan was placed on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism over his links with Islamist militant group. Al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, responsible for the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington in 2001, lived in Sudan between 1992 and 1996. Sudan was under a US embargo until 2017, but remains on its terror blacklist.

General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the military council, said last month that more than $113 million (€101 million) worth of cash in three currencies had been seized in al-Bashir's residence.

Protests for civilian rule

The order of al-Bashir's interrogation came on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of protesters joined a sit-in to demand the military make way for civilian rule.

A huge crowd gathered outside the Defense Ministry, answering a call by an alliance of activists and opposition groups to take part in a protest march through the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Last week, Sudan's army rulers, a 10-member transitional military council, struck a deal with an opposition alliance, the Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces (DFCF), to form a joint civilian-military council in charge of leading the country's transition. However, the two sides are butting heads over who would control the council and what a transitional government would look like. 

The DFCF insist the ruling council must be civilian-led, but the military council has so far been unwilling to relinquish ultimate control. The opposition coalition have promised to maintain a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry until their demands are met.

dv/cmk (AFP, Reuters)

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