Sudan's Bashir faces death sentence over his 1989 coup

Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been summoned to appear before a court over charges of an alleged coup d‘état he staged over 30 years ago. The latest charge follows investigations by the state prosecutors office.

Reports say, he is appearing on Tuesday July 21 before a court in Khartoum and he will be tried by a special jury composed of three judges.

He faces the death penalty or life imprisonment for his role in the coup that brought him to power three decades ago when he toppled the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sadek al-Mahdi.

In June 1989. army brigadier Bashir seizes power in a coup backed by Islamist ideologue Hassan al-Turabi. Economic protests thirty years later morphed into an anti-government movement that toppled him in April 2019.

The former head of state, who is expected to appear alongside 16 other defendants, had already been sentenced to two years for illegal possession of foreign currency.

He is also the subject of a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.