Former Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir has been sentenced to two years in a rehabilitation facility for money laundering and corruption.
It is the first verdict in a series of legal proceedings against Bashir, who is also facing charges relating to the killing of protesters during the uprising against his authoritarian rule earlier this year.
Before he was sentenced, supporters of the ex-president briefly disrupted the proceedings and were pushed out of the courtroom by security forces.
Bashir was charged earlier this year with money laundering, after millions of US dollars, euros and Sudanese pounds were seized in his home shortly after he was ousted.
In August, he told the court Mohammed Bin Salman, the Saudi Arabia Crown Prince, had given him $25m through his office manager.
He said the crown prince did not deposit the money in the country’s central bank as he did not want to be revealed as the source of the funds, and claimed the money was used for donations.
At least $2 million (Ksh203,413,000.00) went to a military hospital and $3 million (Ksh305,119,500.00) to a Sudanese university, he said.
Sudan’s former leader kept a room with millions of euros in his palace
Bashir said $5 million (Ksh508,532,500.00) was given to the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary unit that grew out of the feared Janjaweed militias unleashed during the Darfur conflict in the 2000s.
The former leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes and genocide linked to this conflict.
The verdict in the corruption trial came a year after Sudanese protesters first began their revolt against Bashir’s authoritarian rule.
