Sudan al-Bashir sent to prison

 Sudan’s military rulers have transferred ousted president Omar al-Bashir to prison, a family source said Wednesday, as crowds of protesters flocked through Khartoum in vans and buses to join a sit-in at the army complex.

Following the dramatic end to Bashir’s rule of three decades last week, he was moved late Tuesday to Kober prison in the capital, the source said without revealing his name for security reasons. 
Sudan’s former president, Omar al-Bashir has been sent to Kobar Maximum Prison, days after he was ousted in a military coup. The 75-year-old is reportedly being held in solitary confinement and surrounded by tight security.

Witnesses near the prison in north Khartoum said there was a heavy deployment of soldiers and members of a paramilitary group outside.

The 75-year-old’s whereabouts have been unknown since a military takeover on Thursday when the country’s new rulers said he was being held “in a secure place”.

Late on Wednesday, the military council announced it had detained two of Bashir’s five brothers — Abdallah Hassan al-Bashir and Al-Abbas Hassan al-Bashir.

It said the council had also decided to integrate the Popular Defence Force into the army.

The PDF is a type of reserve unit frequently used to support units of the regular army.

Amnesty International called for Bashir to be “immediately handed over to the International Criminal Court” in The Hague where he faces charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to the conflict in Darfur. He denies the charges.

“His case must not be hurriedly tried in Sudan’s notoriously dysfunctional legal system. Justice must be served,” said Amnesty’s Joan Nyanyuki.

Bashir’s detention has failed to pacify protesters, who launched anti-government demonstrations in December and have for days been camped out in front of Khartoum’s army headquarters.

Scores of doctors in white robes marched from Khartoum’s main hospital towards the sit-in, carrying banners and chanting: “freedom, peace, justice.”

Journalists held a separate rally, along with university students and scores of women from a Facebook group who call themselves “the Information Network of the Revolution”.

The women — who include doctors, lawyers and teachers — are renowned for monitoring security agents who target protesters and publishing their information online in order to hold them to account.