Arrest of Sudan’s army ex-general sparks legal questions
August 23 (PORT SUDAN) – The arrest of a former senior Sudanese general, who was implicated in a 2021 coup attempt, has sparked a dispute over its legality after he was forced into retirement just hours before his detention, sources told the Sudan Tribune on Saturday.
Major General Abdel-Baqi Bakrawi, a former deputy commander of the army’s Armoured Corps, and Khalid al-Mustafa Suleiman, a leader in the pro-army Popular Resistance, were detained last Monday, August 18, 2025.
Bakrawi led a failed coup attempt in 2021 and was facing a military trial that was suspended when war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April 2023.
According to details obtained by Sudan Tribune, a military force summoned Bakrawi from his home in Omdurman on August 18. He refused to comply without a written warrant, leading to a dispute. The force later returned, heavily armed, and detained him.
The arrest occurred hours after army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan issued a decree compelling Bakrawi and other officers to retire. Legal sources told the Sudan Tribune that retiring officers while they are on trial is illegal under the Armed Forces Act.
Sources also disclosed that all court documents for the coup trial were destroyed in RSF attacks on the army’s headquarters in Khartoum.
The other detainee, Khalid al-Mustafa, is a civilian fighter with a long history of ties to the military and Islamist groups. His name has allegedly surfaced in investigations into three separate coup plots since 2012, including Bakrawi’s, but he was never tried.
Despite the allegations, al-Mustafa recently played a key role in fighting alongside the army to drive the RSF from parts of Omdurman.
Military sources who believe the army is targeting the 2021 coup plotters told Sudan Tribune that Bakrawi had previously been denied travel for medical care and that two other officers accused in the plot were initially denied posthumous promotions after being killed fighting the RSF. Burhan later approved the promotions.
Other military sources denied the men were being targeted, suggesting their promotions and status were frozen pending a final verdict in their trial.
A military affairs journalist, Nassif Salah al-Din, told Sudan Tribune that the arrests were unlikely to be related to a new coup plot. He suggested the move could be a precautionary measure to silence critics or a diversion from a recent and controversial list of officer retirements issued by Burhan.