Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Kobar maximum security prison, days after he was deposed in a military coup.

Reports say the ex-leader has until now been detained at the presidential residence under heavy guard.

He is reportedly being held in solitary confinement and is surrounded by tight security.

Months of protests in Sudan led to the ousting and arrest of the long-time ruler on Thursday.

Uganda's Minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem Okello told Reuters news agency the country would consider offering the deposed leader asylum if he applied, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As an ICC member, Uganda would have to hand over Mr Bashir if he arrived in the country. The ICC has not yet commented.
• Timeline: How Sudan got here

Bashir ousted: How Sudan got hereUntil now, Mr Bashir's whereabouts since his removal were unknown. The coup leader at the time, Awad Ibn Auf, said Mr Bashir was being detained in a "safe place". He himself stood down soon afterwards.

Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan was then named as head of the transitional military council, to become Sudan's third leader in as many days.

Demonstrators have vowed to stay on the streets until there is an immediate move to civilian rule.

He is accused of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region, for which the ICC issued an arrest warrant.

After months of protests - starting in response to a rise in living costs and morphing into calls for the government to resign - Sudan's military toppled Mr Bashir in a coup on Thursday.

The transitional military council was set up in the wake of his removal, and has said it will stay in place for a maximum of two years until a civilian government can be put in place.

Punishment for the former leader?

During his three-decade rule, Omar al-Bashir sent many of his political opponents to Kobar prison. Now his relatives say that's where he's been taken.

The conditions there are shockingly different from the splendour of the presidential residence, where he had been under house arrest since Thursday.

Many Sudanese people hope that their former president will be punished for the atrocities committed on his watch. The generals now running the country say Mr Bashir will not be transferred to the ICC but will be tried in Sudan.

If they see concrete evidence that he is in prison, protestors calling for a return to civilian rule may feel at least partly reassured that the country can move on from its oppressive past.

What's the latest with the protesters?

Demonstrators remain camped out the military headquarters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Reports on Monday said there had been efforts to disperse a sit-in, but protesters joined hands and troops stepped back from a confrontation.

The Sudanese Professionals' Association (SPA), which has spearheaded the protests, urged supporters to stop efforts to disperse them, calling on demonstrators to "protect your revolution and your accomplishments".

An SPA spokesman told the BBC that the group "completely rejected" the transitional military council leading the country, and said protesters seek the dismantling of state intelligence agencies and the "full dissolution of the deep state".

What has the military said?

Military council spokesman Maj Gen Shams Ad-din Shanto announced a raft of new measures on Sunday, including the end of censorship and new heads of the security forces.

The council has arrested former government members, he said, and will put in place whatever civilian government and whichever prime minister opposition groups agree.
• Are military takeovers on the rise in Africa?

But while the council promised not to remove protesters from their sit-in, the major also called on them to stop unauthorised roadblocks and "let normal life resume".

"Taking up arms will not be tolerated," he added. </s> Sudan’s former President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has not been seen since he was deposed last week, has been moved to a prison in the capital Khartoum where he once confined those who challenged his rule of nearly 30 years, according to a former adviser to Mr. al-Bashir.

The throngs of Sudanese protesters who forced the ouster of Mr. al-Bashir last Thursday have demanded that he be arrested and put on trial. Until now, the military generals who have taken power said only that he was being held in a “safe place,” but did not say where.

Mr. al-Bashir is currently under indictment by the International Criminal Court at The Hague for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Those charges relate to the atrocities that his regime oversaw in the 2000s in Darfur, a province in the country’s west. It is unclear whether he will be extradited.

Mr. al-Bashir was taken to Kober prison in Khartoum, according to Osama Nabil Sobhi, the president of Sudan Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission, which served as an advisory board to Mr. al-Bashir. </s> Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir has been taken to a prison in the capital, five days after the military removed him from power and put him under house arrest.

Relatives of the ousted president say Bashir, 75, was moved to Khartoum's Kobar prison on Tuesday and is being held under tight security.

He has not been seen in public since the army toppled him in a coup last Thursday, following months of street protests triggered by escalating prices for food and fuel.

Thousands of demonstrators remain outside army headquarters in Khartoum, pressing their demands for a civilian-led transitional government. Coup leaders said last week a military-run council will rule the country for two years. The African Union and several Western countries have called for a fast transition to civilian leadership and elections.

Meanwhile, a rebel group in Sudan's Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile says it will cease hostilities until July 31. Rebel leader Abdelaziz Adam al-Helew says the move is to help facilitate the transfer to civilian leaders in Sudan.

Bashir seized power in a June 1989 military coup and led the country with an iron fist for 30 years before his ouster. He is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region.

The military council has said it will not extradite the president to the ICC. </s> (BBC) Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Kobar maximum security prison, days after he... </s> KHARTOUM - Sudan’s deposed President Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Kober prison in the capital, Khartoum, family sources told Reuters news agency, but officials disputed the account. Citing a source at the prison on Wednesday, Reuters reported that al-Bashir was being held under tight security in solitary confinement since Tuesday. The ruling Transitional Military Council has yet to confirm the report.

Al Jazeera’a Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said officials disputed the report that al-Bashir was being held in the prison. “They said al-Bashir was being held in a safe place under house arrest until he is taken to court,” Morgan reported.

“The protesters who are conducting a sit-in at the defence ministry in the capital say that they will not end their action until they see al-Bashir in court to be held to account for crimes committed when in power,” she added. “They’re also saying they will not end their sit-in if the government does not hand over power to an independent civilian government.”

Witnesses said there was a heavy deployment of soldiers and members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Force outside the Kober prison in north Khartoum. “There are troops in vehicles mounted with machine-guns near the prison,” a witness told a private news agency. Kober prison was built by the British during the colonial period and is located on the east bank of the Blue Nile in a northern district of the capital where al-Bashir grew up.

The area was previously known as Kober, taking its name from the prison, but al-Bashir later changed the name to Omar al-Mukhtar after a hero of Libya’s struggle against Italian colonial rule. The brick-built prison, which is surrounded by a high concrete wall, holds hundreds of inmates at any one time, many of them crammed in tiny cells.

It has a special wing for political prisoners where several opposition leaders and activists were held during the four months of protests which led to al-Bashir’s overthrow. The wing is run by the feared National Intelligence and Security Service rather than the police.

Since his removal by the military last Thursday, al-Bashir had been detained under heavy guard in the presidential residence inside the compound that also houses the defence ministry, the family sources said. The military removed al-Bashir after months of protests against him that culminated in a sit-in outside the defence ministry compound that began on April 6. Protesters are still camping there demanding the end of ‘deep-state’. Al-Bashir, who ruled Sudan since 1989, is facing arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the conflict in the western Darfur region. Meanwhile, Uganda said on Wednesday it would consider offering asylum to al-Bashir despite his indictment by the ICC. “Uganda would not be apologetic at all for considering an application by al-Bashir,” Okello Oryem, Uganda’s state minister for foreign affairs, told Reuters. Oryem said al-Bashir had yet to contact Kampala for possible refuge, but added that there was no harm in considering the fallen Sudanese leader for political asylum.

There was no immediate comment from the ICC in The Hague. ICC member states, which include Uganda, are obligated to hand over indictees who enter their territory.

Though al-Bashir is under ICC indictment for suspected genocide in Darfur, the military council in Khartoum has said it will not hand him over and instead may try him in Sudan.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has in the past criticised the ICC, describing it as a tool of Western justice against Africans, and he once vowed to mobilise African countries to pull out of the court’s founding treaty.

Relations between Sudan and Uganda, where Museveni has been in power since 1986, were frosty in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Uganda accused al-Bashir-led Sudan at the time of supporting strongman Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), while Sudan alleged Uganda was offering assistance to an anti-Khartoum rebel group, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA later led South Sudan to independence from Khartoum while the LRA, still undefeated but mostly dormant, is believed to be hiding out in a patch of jungle between the borders of Uganda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

After South Sudan’s independence in 2011, Museveni and al-Bashir gradually reconciled and have since jointly championed efforts to end fighting in the newest African country.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s military council ordered the central bank to review financial transfers since April 1 and to seize “suspect” funds, state news agency SUNA reported on Wednesday.

The TMC also ordered the “suspension of the transfer of ownership of any shares until further notice and for any large or suspect transfers of shares or companies to be reported” to authorities. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Sudan's military ousted long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir in a coup on Thursday

Sudan's former President Omar al-Bashir has been moved to Kobar maximum security prison, days after he was deposed in a military coup.

Reports say the ex-leader has until now been detained at the presidential residence under heavy guard.

He is reportedly being held in solitary confinement and is surrounded by tight security.

Months of protests in Sudan led to the ousting and arrest of the long-time ruler on Thursday.

Uganda's Minister for Foreign Affairs Henry Oryem Okello told Reuters news agency the country would consider offering the deposed leader asylum if he applied, despite an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

As an ICC member, Uganda would have to hand over Mr Bashir if he arrived in the country. The ICC has not yet commented.

Until now, Mr Bashir's whereabouts since his removal were unknown. The coup leader at the time, Awad Ibn Auf, said Mr Bashir was being detained in a "safe place". He himself stood down soon afterwards.

Lt Gen Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan was then named as head of the transitional military council, to become Sudan's third leader in as many days.

Demonstrators have vowed to stay on the streets until there is an immediate move to civilian rule.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption 'Protesters won't move until they get real change'

Protesters show calm conviction

By Joe Inwood, BBC News, Khartoum

A sea of doctors, shouting with such anger and passion that their voices crack. Thousands are still protesting outside the military institutions that for 30 years sustained the brutal regime of President Bashir.

Now, the military council that deposed him is struggling to maintain an increasingly fragile grip on power, while the man who once led the country sits in prison.

Today it has emerged he is in solitary confinement, locked in the very place where so many of his victims were held, tortured and killed.

Ordinary people have managed to bring an entrenched and violent regime to its knees. They have done it not through force of arms, but through calm conviction, passion and a dedication to their cause that you can see in their eyes.

Who is Omar al-Bashir?

Mr Bashir led Sudan for close to 30 years.

He is accused of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan's western Darfur region, for which the ICC issued an arrest warrant.

After months of protests - starting in response to a rise in living costs and morphing into calls for the government to resign - Sudan's military toppled Mr Bashir in a coup on Thursday.

The transitional military council was set up in the wake of his removal, and has said it will stay in place for a maximum of two years until a civilian government can be put in place.

What are conditions like in the prison?

Kober prison, situated on the east bank of the Blue Nile, was built during Britain's near 60-year colonial rule of Sudan.

The building, built with bricks and surrounded by towering concrete walls, has the capacity to hold hundreds of prisoners. Space in its tiny cells, however, is said to be scarce.

Many of the protesters and opposition leaders who took to the streets demanding Mr Bashir's resignation have been detained on its special wing for political prisoners.

Sudan's feared National Intelligence and Security Service runs this wing, not the police.

Sudan analyst Alex de Waal, who has visited the prison, told the BBC its infrastructure has not been updated since it was built.

"The cells are very rudimentary, it is a very basic form of accommodation, there is no air conditioning or running water," he said.

Nevertheless, the prison has a reputation for treating the inmates well and not subjecting them to random violence, he added.

A former detainee at the prison told AFP news agency that up to seven prisoners, most of whom are petty criminals, are typically housed in each cell.

"There is a bathroom in each cell but no beds - only mattresses and mosquitoes," the former inmate, who was jailed there during protests against Mr Bashir's rule in January last year, said.

What's the latest with the protesters?

Demonstrators remain camped out the military headquarters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Reports on Monday said there had been efforts to disperse a sit-in, but protesters joined hands and troops stepped back from a confrontation.

The Sudanese Professionals' Association (SPA), which has spearheaded the protests, urged supporters to stop efforts to disperse them, calling on demonstrators to "protect your revolution and your accomplishments".

An SPA spokesman told the BBC that the group "completely rejected" the transitional military council leading the country, and said protesters seek the dismantling of state intelligence agencies and the "full dissolution of the deep state".

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Demonstrators have vowed to stay on the streets until there is a move to civilian rule

What has the military said?

Military council spokesman Maj Gen Shams Ad-din Shanto announced a raft of new measures on Sunday, including the end of censorship and new heads of the security forces.

The council has arrested former government members, he said, and will put in place whatever civilian government and whichever prime minister opposition groups agree.

But while the council promised not to remove protesters from their sit-in, the major also called on them to stop unauthorised roadblocks and "let normal life resume".

"Taking up arms will not be tolerated," he added. </s> Sudan’s deposed ruler Omar al-Bashir who was held at a ‘safe location’ since last week has been transferred to Kobar maximum security prison.Family sources said Bashir 75, was moved to the maximum security prison in the capital Khartoum where he is being kept under solitary confinement.

Witnesses say the Kobar prisons has seen a heavy security presence shortly before Bashir was moved their after his detention in one of his former palaces.

Kobar is one of the biggest prisons in the country where Sudan’s most important prisoners are held.

Bashir lost power after the army intervened last Thursday following four months of street protests which began over the rising price of foodstuffs.

It soon morphed into a movement calling for his head as demonstrators came under heavy crackdown from his security forces, resulting in the death of over 100 people.

The former army officer came to power in a military coup in 1989. </s> In the African country, Sudan, the army has ousted the long-ruled president of the country. Sudan’s army has ousted and arrested President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday. Country’s defence Minister Awad Ibnouf confirmed this on state television

He informed that the President has been removed from power and detained by the army. He also said a three-month state of emergency was being put in place. Sudan’s constitution was being suspended, border crossings were being closed until further notice and airspace was being closed for 24 hours. Awad Ibn Ouf said the army had decided to oversee a two-year transitional period followed by elections.

Meanwhile, Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) service announced that it was freeing all the political detainees across the country.

Protests against Bashir, who has governed Sudan since 1989, have been underway for several months.

Bashir is the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which accuses him of organising war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s western Darfur region. </s> Sudan’s deposed president Omar al-Bashir, who ruled the country for 30 years, arrived in court Monday in Khartoum for the start of his trial on corruption charges.

Bashir, 75, was forced from power on April 11, after months of protest against his regime and appeared before a prosecutor for the first time on June 16.

Now detained, the general was informed by the prosecutor’s office that he faced charges of “possessing foreign currency, corruption and receiving gifts illegally.”

An AFP reporter outside the Judicial and Legal Science Institute where the trial is taking place said Bashir arrived in a huge military convoy.

In April, Sudan’s army ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said more than $113 million worth of cash in three currencies had been seized from Bashir’s residence.

In May, the prosecutor general also said Bashir had been charged over killings during the anti-regime protests which eventually led to his ouster.

Protests against Bashir’s rule erupted on December 19 after his government tripled the price of bread.

The most serious indictments facing Bashir, who ruled the country since seizing power in a 1989 coup, have been filed by the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).

They include war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in the war in Darfur, where a rebellion erupted in 2003.

The United Nations says the conflict has left more than 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, with hundreds of thousands still living in miserable and impoverished camps more than a decade and a half later.

The ICC has for years demanded that Bashir stand trial, and has renewed its call since his fall.

In a statement issued last week, Amnesty International warned that his graft trial should not distract from the heavier charges he faces in The Hague.

“While this trial is a positive step towards accountability for some of his alleged crimes, he remains wanted for heinous crimes committed against the Sudanese people,” Amnesty’s Joan Nyanyuki said.

Last Update: Monday, 19 August 2019 KSA 12:06 - GMT 09:06
Former President of Sudan Omar al-Bashir is transferred from house arrest to a maximum security prison, reports say. His whereabouts had been unknown since the coup against him earlier this month. Al-Bashir has been wanted by the International Criminal Court since 2009 for war crimes in Darfur.