Jailed Sudanese Islamists on hunger strike

KHARTOUM, July 25 (Reuters) – Forty-seven members of a Sudanese Islamist party have mounted a hunger strike to protest their continued detention after the government said it had freed all political detainees, a senior party member said on Monday.

Hassan Abdallah Ahmed, deputy secretary-general of the Popular Congress Party, said seven of the 47 party members were hospitalised after their hunger strike entered its sixth day.

“They should be released because they are political detainees … They have not been charged with anything,” Ahmed told Reuters.

The detainees have been in custody for between a few months to over a year, Ahmed added.

The party’s leader, influential Islamist ideologue Hassan al-Turabi, was released on June 30 from 18 months in detention after his former ally, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, announced the release of all political prisoners.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment but have previously told the press there were no longer any political detainees and any political party members in jail were accused of ordinary criminal offences.

On July 10, Sudan’s new coalition unity government lifted the state of emergency in Sudan, except in the east of the country and the western Darfur region where rebels are fighting the government.

The new government, which includes former southern rebel leader John Garang as first vice president, comes after a January peace agreement ended a north-south civil war.

The rest of the government, split among the ruling National Congress Party, the former rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and other northern and southern parties is not expected to form until August 9.

Turabi and the Umma Party, considered Sudan’s most popular political force, have formed a political alliance with other groups to push for greater inclusion in the new government.