Sudanese Bashir-era official says he and others have left prison and will protect themselves

CAIRO (Reuters) – Sudanese ex-official Ahmed Haroun, who served under Omar al-Bashir and is wanted by the International Criminal Court, said that he and other former officials of Bashir’s government had left Kober prison and would take responsibility for their own protection, in a statement aired on Sudan’s Tayba TV on Tuesday.

    Haroun also said they were ready to appear in front of the judiciary whenever it was functioning.

    The statement comes after reports that prisoners at Kober prison, which held Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and other top deputies, had staged a break earlier this week.

    It was not immediately clear if Bashir, who has spent extended periods in a military hospital, was at the prison.

(Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir and Eltayeb Siddig; Writing by Aidan C. Lewis and Adam Makary; Editing by Leslie Adler)