Sudan’s top judge has been fired, and the country’s chief prosecutor has resigned, according to the country’s governing body, following mounting outrage over delays in providing justice.
“The sovereign council… has accepted the resignation of Tagelsir al-Hebr from his position as general prosecutor,” the council said in a statement issued late Monday.
“The council has relieved Neamat Abdullah Mohamed Kheir from her position as head of the judiciary,” it said.
Kheir and Hebr were named in October 2019, months after President Omar al-Bashir was deposed following massive anti-government protests. With her nomination, Kheir became Sudan’s first female head of the judiciary.
According to the statement released Monday, Hebr had submitted his resignation “several times before but this time he was more insistent on stepping down.”
According to Nation Africa, Hebr oversaw investigations into an array of cases related to “violations” committed during Bashir’s rule.
Sudan’s army announced on Saturday that it had handed Hebr the findings of an investigation into the recent killing of two protesters who were demanding justice for the victims of a violent protest dispersal in 2019.
Hundreds gathered outside the army headquarters in Khartoum last week, demanding prompt inquiries into the deaths of demonstrators during a violent dispersal of a mass sit-in at the same location in 2019. Last week’s protest was suppressed by security forces, who killed two people and injured dozens.
According to medics connected to the protest movement, armed men in military fatigues violently dispersed the camp in June 2019, at the end of Ramadan, killing at least 128 people in a days-long crackdown.
Victims’ families have been pleading with officials to apprehend the suspects. At the time, the ruling generals denied ordering the bloody dispersal and demanded an investigation into the incident.
Sudan has been ruled by a civilian-majority transitional government since August 2019, which has promised to bring justice to the victims and their families.
Later that year, an independent investigative committee headed by a renowned lawyer was established to look into the killings, but it has yet to complete its work.
