Sudan’s government on Friday overturned a moral policing law that criminalised wearing revealing clothing and drinking alcohol, and dissolved the country’s former ruling party, fulfilling the two key demands of pro-democracy protesters. “This law is notorious for being used as a tool of exploitation, humiliation & violation of rights,” PM Abdallah Hamdok said in a tweet.
“I pay tribute to the women and youth of my country who have endured the atrocities that resulted from the implementation of this law.”
The Public Order Act was first passed in 1992 by al-Bashir’s Islamist government and enforced only in the capital, Khartoum, before being applied nationwide four years later. The law criminalised a wide range of individual behaviour, including revealing clothing and drinking alcohol. Those convicted of violating the act could face prison sentences, fines, lashing and confiscation of property.
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Sudan’s sovereign council and Cabinet announced both decisions after a fourteen-hour long meeting that ended shortly after midnight on Thursday. It said the law to dismantle al-Bashir’s National Congress Party (NCP) would also confiscate the party’s assets and funds.
The sovereign council grew out of a power-sharing agreement between the country’s ruling generals and protesters demanding sweeping political change. Under the deal, the council and the civilian-led cabinet share legislative powers until a new parliament is formed.
Pro-democracy groups in the country have also held fresh protests demanding the former ruling party’s disbandment and the exclusion of all its remnants from different state institutions.
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Prime Minister Hamdok tweeted that the bill dismantling al-Bashir’s party is not the outcome of “a quest of vengeance but rather to preserve and restore the dignity of our people who have grown weary of the injustice under the hands of NCP, who have looted & hindered the development of this great nation.”
The Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded the uprising against al-Bashir, hailed the move as “an important step” towards the establishment of a civil and democratic state in Sudan.
Sudan’s Justice Minister Nasr-Eddin Abdul-Bari announced that the law passed by the interim government on Friday would transfer all assets and funds of al-Bashir’s party to the state treasury.
"With this law, we will be able to retrieve a lot of funds that were taken from the public treasury to create institutions that acted as a parallel state,” Abdul-bari told reporters after the meeting.
Al-Bashir was arrested after his overthrow in April and is currently on trial for charges of corruption and money laundering. A verdict is scheduled for Dec. 14.