Sudan’s Bashir moved to prison as doctors rally

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s military rulers have transferred ousted president Omar al-Bashir to prison, a family source said Wednesday, as doctors marched through the capital to join a sit-in protest 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 Khartoum”, the source said without revealing his name for security reasons.

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”.

The detention of Bashir 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 their white robes marched from Khartoum’s main hospital towards the sit-in, carrying banners and chanting: “freedom, peace, justice.” Journalists held a separate rally, calling for press freedom and holding signs demanding state media be run by “independent, professional journalists”. Sudan’s military rulers have made some concessions to protesters, including the sacking Tuesday of prosecutor general Omer Ahmed Mohamed, but demonstrators fear their uprising could be hijacked.“We faced tear gas, many of us were jailed. We have been shot and many have died. All this because we said what we wanted to,” protester Fadia Khalaf told AFP.