Sudanese Court Acquits Ex-Foreign Minister of Planning Coup - Reports

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th April, 2022) A court in Sudan acquitted the country's former foreign minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, accused of planning a coup and terrorism, and 12 others involved in the case, Sudanese media reported on Thursday.

The Tag Press newspaper said that a court in Khartoum found Ghandour and other defendants not guilty and ordered their immediate release.

The former minister was arrested in June 2020. A senior source in the Sudanese Prosecutor General's Office told Sputnik that Ghandour could have been executed or sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the formation of military opposition against the country's transitional authorities.

Ghandour headed the Sudanese Foreign Ministry from 2015-2018. According to media reports, he played a decisive role in the negotiations held in October 2017 on lifting US sanctions from Sudan. Gandour was dismissed from his post in 2018 by order of former President Omar al-Bashir, after his public announcement that Sudanese diplomats abroad had been unpaid for several months.

In April 2019, mass rallies against economic mismanagement culminated in a military coup. Al-Bashir was overthrown and imprisoned. Power was transferred from the Transitional Military Council to the Sovereign Council of Sudan.