Sudan's Civilian Gov't to Decide If Bashir to Be Handed Over to ICC – Council

CAIRO (Sputnik) - A civilian government in Sudan will decide whether to hand ex-President Omar Bashir over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a member of the ruling military council said on Tuesday.

"It is up to an elected people’s government and not the transitional military council whether to hand him over to the ICC," the council’s member, Jalal Deen Sheikh, was quoted as saying by Egypt’s Masrawy news website on his trip to Ethiopia.

READ MORE: EU Envoy Offers Sudan Help With Transition to Civilian Rule — Sudanese Military

The military council toppled Bashir last week and has been holding the 75-year-old and many of the ousted government’s officials in jail. The military plans to pass the reins to a civilian government in two years’ time, but protesters in Khartoum have been calling for an immediate handover.

Rallies in Sudan, which have been going on since December 2018, were initially caused by the rise in bread prices, but protesters later changed their demands and called for the resignation of Sudanese President Omar Bashir.

The Hague-based court has been trying for years to get Bashir extradited to face war crime charges for atrocities he allegedly committed in Darfur in the 2000s.