Sudanese prosecutors on Thursday announced they have found a mass grave of 28 army officers who were executed in 1990 for plotting an attempted coup against the former President Omar al-Bashir, reported Reuters.
In a statement, public prosecutor Tagelsir Al Hebr said the bodies were unearthed in Omdurman, the twin city of the capital Khartoum. The statement revealed that a team of 23 experts took three weeks to identify and uncover the site, which remains heavily guarded. It added that further investigations are underway to uncover the full circumstances of the deaths.
The army officers, who sought to overthrow al-Bashir, were reportedly arrested and executed in mysterious circumstances. This is the second time that a mass grave has been uncovered in as many months. Last month, a mass grave was discovered in the east of Khartoum that is suspected to contain the remains of students killed in 1998 as they tried escaping military service at a training camp.
“The public prosecution managed to find a mass grave that data indicates that it is most likely the graveyard where the bodies of the officers who were killed and buried in a brutal manner,” the Sudanese public prosecutor said in a statement.
He assured the families of the executed officers that “such crimes will not pass without a just trial”.
Bashir was forced to step down last year when the military ousted him after months of mass street protests. He appeared in court on Tuesday at the opening of his trial for leading the military coup that brought him to power.
The former Sudanese president was already handed down a two-year sentence by a court in December on corruption charges. He also faces trials and investigations over the killing of protesters. He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s restive Darfur region.
