Sudan: court convicts Bashir’s second wife of illicit self-enrichment

The Anti-Corruption Criminal Court in Sudan convicted Widad Babiker on Sunday of illegally amassing wealth. The second wife of ousted President Omar Al-Bashir was also stripped of her assets, including agricultural and residential land, properties and gold artefacts.

Local media outlets reported that the court, headed by Judge Al-Moez Babiker Al-Jazouli, also imposed a fine of 100 million Sudanese pounds ($19,197). She has two weeks in which to appeal against the judgement.

The court convicted Babiker of collecting the armed forces pension of her former husband, Ibrahim Shams Al-Din, for more than 16 years after his death. After she married Al-Bashir, it was alleged, she used the money to buy land.

Babiker told the court that most of her assets were gifts from her husband; only some were bought using the pension money of her late husband.

READ: Sudan’s army chief warns politicians against interfering with military