Prosecutors in Sudan quiz Al Bashir’s wife about wealth, jewellery

Sudan’s General Intelligence Service (GIS) says the second wife of ousted president Omar Al Bashir has once again been questioned by prosecutors about the sources of wealth and assets in her possession.

In a statement on Wednesday, the GIS said that a quantity of valuable jewellery has been seized from the Khartoum home Widad Babikr shared with the deposed dictator, and where she lived under house arrest and strict restrictions since the ousting of her husband on April 11.

Illegal wealth

Babikr, accused of “illegal ownership of wealth and suspicious richness”, was arrested two weeks ago, and questioned about her bank accounts and the possession of residential lands and real estate, which have been frozen by the prosecution.

In the latest round, a team from the Illegal Wealth Prosecution reportedly questioned Babikr about the financing of the SANAD charity she chaired, before Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) revoked its registration and froze its assets last month, along with 28 other entities affiliated with the Al Bashir regime.

Accounts in Malaysia

The Illegal Wealth Prosecution also asked Babikr for more details about residential properties in luxurious districts of Khartoum, huge agricultural projects in eastern Sudan's El Gedaref, as well as her ownership of funds or accounts in Malaysia.

Al Bashir himself was recently convicted of corruption and currency irregularities, and sentenced to two years in a ‘correctional facility’ designed for older prisoners. However as he faces further charges related to atrocities committed during the war in Darfur, he remains incarcerated pending trial in Khartoum’s Kober Prison.

Al Bashir’s first wife, Fatima Khalid, is one of his cousins. Widad Babikr, his second wife, whom he married in 2003, was the widow of Col Ibrahim Shamseldin, member of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation and one of Al Bashir’s closest military friends, who died in a helicopter crash in April 2001.

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