Sudan issues an international arrest warrant for a former intelligence chief on suspicion of corruption

July 29 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Sudanese authorities have issued an international arrest warrant against the former head of the intelligence services Salá Abdalá Mohamed Salé, known as ‘Salá Gosh’, for alleged acts of corruption during the regime of former President Omar Hasán al Bashir.

According to information collected by the Sudan Tribune news portal, ‘Salá Hosh’ is accused of using his influence to force the former owner of the company Tarco Aviation to pay a $50 million fine and hand over the company before ending his arrest and drop the charges against him.

The decision of the Prosecutor’s Office has come after the arrest on Thursday of the current general director of Tarco Aviation, Saad Babikir, to investigate him for alleged illicit enrichment, abuse of power and irregularities in a series of transactions with the Bank of Khartoum.

The case also affects ‘Salá Gosh’ and two other men identified as Uahid al Hadi and Qasem al Khaleq Babikir. The aforementioned businessman, Fadl Mohamed Jair, was arrested in July 2018 and it is unknown how he was able to sell his shares from prison, although ‘Salá Gosh’ is accused of pressuring him to do so.

The former head of the intelligence services has lived in Egypt since his resignation a few days after the overthrow of Al Bashir in a military coup in April 2019 after months of massive popular mobilizations against his regime.

However, the vice president of the Sovereign Transitional Council and leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as ‘Hemedti’, accused him of being behind an attempted uprising. Thus, he accused ‘Salá Gosh’ of having “planned a sedition” and did not rule out that there are “foreign hands” behind the incidents.

‘Salá Gosh’, who headed the intelligence services between 2004 and 2009 and served as Al Bashir’s security adviser, was arrested in 2012 after being accused of “inciting chaos”, “attacking” some leaders and spreading rumors. about the health of the then president. However, he was released in 2013 and returned to duty in February 2018.

Currently, the country is led by the president of the Sovereign Transitional Council and head of the Army, Abdelfatá al Burhan, who in October 2021 staged a coup that overthrew the transitional authorities established after the fall of Al Bashir.