Sudan says Turabi disseminating lies against government

May 15, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Islamist opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi is stirring up hatred, disseminating malicious lies and abuse of Sudan’s foreign relations, said the Sudanese government today to justify his arrest on Saturday.

The arrest of Turabi coincided with the closure of a daily newspaper close to the Popular Congress Party (PCP), Ray Alsha’ab, after the publication of a report alleging that Iran had constructed a weapon factory in Sudan aiming to supply Islamists insurgents in Somalia and Yemeni Shiite rebels as well as Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas.

The ministry of information said the publication of this report comes as the international community considers new sanctions against Iran over the nuclear file and tries to create a link between Sudan and Iran.

“I do not see any separation between the arrest of the Secretary-General of the Popular Congress Party, Dr. Hassan Al-Turabi and the closure of Ray Alsha’ab,” said Rabie Abdelati, adviser at the ministry of the ministry of information in an interview with the Sudanese TV on Sunday evening.

Rabie who is also a leading member in the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) further said that Turabi is the first responsible of all what Ray Alsha’ab publishes adding that he and the PCP are behind articles hostile to the government published in this daily.

He stressed that these “unjust and false accusations” remind the missile strike on Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in August 1998.

Qutbi Al-Mahdi, NCP head of organization secretariat ruled out any political reasons for the detention of the opposition leader. However he added security reasons might have triggered his arrest.

He underlined that the country is besieged by many events such as what is happening in Darfur, the row over Nile water and the south, adding that the investigation would show if there is a need to keep him under arrest or not.

Detained five times since a row with President Omer Al-Bashir and Vice-President Ali Osman Taha in 1999 over the distribution of powers between the center and regions, Turabi was vocal critic for the government polices in Southern Sudan and Darfur.

He had been arrested for the first time in February 2001 after the signing of political understanding with the former rebel SPLM in Geneva. While his fourth detention came after an attack by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement on the Sudanese capital in May 2008.

The Sudanese opposition condemned the arrest of Turabi considering it as setback in the democratic freedoms. In a statement read by Miriam Al-Mahdi in Khartoum on Sunday, the opposition threatened to organize protests to force the government to release him.

Also some hundreds of PCP supporters demonstrated in the streets of the capital demanding his release. Meanwhile, Turabi’s deputy Abdallah Hassan Ahmed said his party would not accept his arrest would do anything to protect him.

Abdallah further said that the arrest of Turabi is aimed at intimidating the opposition forces and to curb its activities.

(ST)