SPLM releases NCP members detained in Southern Sudan

May 24, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — One of the two major partners in the Sudan’s government of national unity said it succeeded to release its members who were detained by other one in Southern Sudan.

A Sudanese president advisor, and leading member in the National Congress party’s (NCP), Ali Tamim Fartag said that efforts succeeded in the getting the release of large numbers of its members who were detained by the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) intelligence service in southern Sudan, a pro-NCP media reported today.

Fartag, told the Sudanese Media center that their ongoing communications with the SPLM/A resulted in the release of a number of the party’s members from the south, pointing out that there are now only three party members in custody in SPLM/A intelligence detention centers.

He mentioned that the NCP has demanded from the SPLM that the three detainees be turned over to the police for investigation so that they can either be released or given fair trials, while strongly criticizing the practices of the SPLM/A intelligence service.

Fartag said that the SPLM/A intelligence service did not legally exist, that the police or security services with the knowledge of the prosecution should conduct arrests, and when there is evidence, they should be referred to the judiciary.

(ST)