Sudan’s former president Omar al-Bashir, ousted amid a popular pro-democracy uprising last year, went on trial Tuesday over the military coup that brought him to power more than three decades ago.
Bashir, 76, could face the death penalty if convicted over the 1989 Islamist-backed overthrow of the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadek al-Mahdi.
Along with Bashir, 27 co-accused were in the dock at the Khartoum court house, which was heavily guarded by police outside with AK-47 assault rifles, batons and tear gas grenades.
Bashir, who was kept with the other accused in a caged area of the courtroom, did not speak during the trial’s opening session which ended after about one hour, with the next hearing set for August 11.
Outside the courthouse, dozens of family members of the defendants rallied, many shouting “Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)”.
It is the first time in the modern history of the Arab world that the architect of a coup has been put on trial for plotting a putsch, although the man dubbed the true brain behind the military overthrow, Hassan Turabi of the National Islamic Front, died in 2016.
