Sudan's military fires attorney general over crackdown

KHARTOUM

Sudan's ruling military council on Thursday fired the country's attorney general over ties with recent deadly crackdown on protestors.

The Transitional Military Council (TMC) dismissed prosecutor general Alwaleed Sayed Ahmed Mahmoud and appointed Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, a judicial source told Anadolu Agency.

Last Thursday, TMC spokesman Shamseddine Kabbashi told media outlets that the country's attorney general participated in a security meeting to provide legal advice regarding the deadly dispersal of a sit-in in front of the army headquarters in Khartoum.

On June 3, Sudanese security forces stormed the sit-in in central Khartoum and dispersed it by force. The crackdown left more than 100 people dead according to opposition sources while the TMC puts the death toll at 35.

On Sunday, the Attorney General, Alwaleed Sayed Ahmed, denied discussing the sit-in with the TMC and threatened to resign over intervention in his powers and competences.

Sudan has remained in turmoil since April 11, when the military establishment deposed long-serving Omar al-Bashir after months of popular protests against his 30-year rule.

The Transitional Military Council (TMC) is now overseeing a two-year “transitional period” during which it has pledged to hold free presidential elections.

The TMC has announced it will draw up a transitional technocrat government and hold general elections within a year.

Protests across the nation, however, have continued to demand that the military council hand over power -- at the earliest possible date -- to a civilian authority.

* Writing by Mahmoud Barakat