Sudan army officers accused of July 2019 coup attempt released on appeal

A specialised court in Khartoum on Thursday ordered the release on appeal of army officers accused of the second coup attempt after the April 2019 revolution that overthrew the 30-year Al Bashir dictatorship. The second coup attempt in late July 2019, which followed a previous attempt earlier that month, was led by former Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Hashim Abdelmutalab, and other senior staff officers.

In a hearing of an appeal lodged by the defence team of the accused on Tuesday, the special court ruled that the time the accused have already served in prison, as well as expulsion from the Sudanese Armed Forces, is a sufficient tariff so that they need no longer be incarcerated.

Following the coup attempt in July 2019, Sudanese authorities arrested the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Lt Gen Hashim Abdelmutalab, the commander of the armoured corps, Maj Gen Nasreldin Abdelfattah, and the commander of the Central District, Maj Gen Bahar Ahmed. The arrests also included leading figures of the Islamist Movement, Ali Karti and Zubeir Ahmed El Hasan.

The authorities at the time confirmed that the goal of the failed coup attempt was “to abort the popular revolution, return the former regime to power, and bar the way to a political solution of the future aims to establish the civilian state envisaged by the Sudanese people”.

The first coup attempt in early July 2019 further increased the political turmoil in post-revolution Sudan. A spokesman for the Transitional Military Council at the time, Lt Gen Jamal Omar, said that 12 serving officers and five retired officers had been arrested, as well as four non-commissioned officers. He did not release the names of those arrested, however he