September 22, 2020 (Khartoum) The defense committee of 1989 coup plotters has accused one of the court’s two judges of bias and demanded that this judge should step down for his bias against the
defendants.
The session was held at its usual premises in the Institute of Judicial Sciences in the suburb of Arquette in Khartoum, and it had been announced in the previous session that the sessions would be transformed into another hall that takes into account the health controls for the defense committee’s request, but the Friendship Hall apologized for hosting the sittings. About 40 leaders of the former regime,face charges that carry the death penalty for violating Article 96 of the Penal Code of 1983.
The main defendants in the case are Al-Bashir, Ali Othman Muhammad Taha, Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hussein, Ali Al-Hajj, Awad Ahmed Al-Jaz, and Ibrahim Al-Senussi
The court has heard a comment from defence lawyer, Baroud Sandal Rajab, on the accusation, in which he summarized his comment in three points: the first relates to the jurisdiction and legitimacy of the court as a special criminal court and that the constitutional document for the transitional period of 2019 has closed down the door for special courts completely, and the second point is that Article (6) of
the Criminal Procedure Law for the year 1991 gave the Chief Justice the right to form special courts, and therefore this text is unconstitutional and does not work in accordance with the provisions
of Article (3) of the constitutional document, which is the supreme law, while the third point given by the lawyer relates to one of the two judges of the court who was present in front of the General
Command during the glorious Revolution and chanted against the former regime, therefore the defendants regard him as biased against them and thus he shall step down from this trial..