An Abu Dhabi appeals court has convicted eight men, including a senior Sudanese army commander and Bashir-era intelligence chief Salah Gosh, over an unlicensed scheme to send weapons and ammunition to Sudan's army.
The Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal on 29 October sentenced eight men to life imprisonment over what it described as an illicit network that supplied weapons, ammunition and military equipment to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and laundered the proceeds, according to the UAE's official news agency WAM.
Those given life terms include Lieutenant General Yasser al-Atta, described in the judgment as Assistant to the SAF Commander-in-Chief and the official responsible for armament; Salah Abdullah Mohammed Saleh, known as Salah Gosh, the former head of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Service under Omar al-Bashir; and Othman al-Zubair, identified as the army's financial official for armament. Five other men were also jailed for life.
What the court found
According to WAM, the court found that the defendants arranged two deals without a UAE licence, bringing Goryunov-type ammunition into the UAE for onward flight to Port Sudan while declaring the cargo as medical equipment and supplies. Payment was made through bank transfers and cash, including about AED 8 million in cash handed over inside the UAE.
The judgment states that al-Atta requested the weapons and sought a landing permit at Port Sudan airport, and that al-Zubair paid suppliers through the hawala system. It also says a former director of Salah Gosh's office received a commission allocated to Gosh. Seven defendants received additional three-year terms for money laundering, six companies were fined AED 1 million each and had their licences cancelled, and two defendants were acquitted.
Questions that remain
The Sudan Times reported that it was not immediately clear whether all of those convicted were in UAE custody or whether any verdicts were handed down in absentia. It also reported no immediate response from Sudan's military leadership. The army-aligned authorities in Port Sudan have repeatedly accused the UAE of backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which the UAE denies; the case is therefore likely to be contested politically.
Even so, the court's findings, as published by WAM, offer an unusually detailed account of how senior SAF figures and a leading Bashir-era security chief allegedly worked together to source arms through commercial fronts. The court said the deals were made "for the benefit of one of the parties to the conflict" at a time of international restrictions on arms supplies to Sudan.
For those tracking the influence of the old regime's security and Islamist networks inside the army's war effort, the case adds documentary weight to long-standing concerns. CERHA will follow any response from Port Sudan and any appeal.
Photo: Yasser al-Atta during a 2019 television interview. Ashorooq TV, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.