Sudan president pardons opposition SAF leader

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Dec 18, 2004 (UPI) — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Saturday pardoned a detained opposition leader accused of involvement in sabotage.

Sources at the presidential palace told United Press International the president pardoned retired Gen. Abdul Aziz Khaled after meeting with his defense attorney, Ghazi Suleiman, a prominent human rights advocate.

Khaled was detained by the United Arab Emirates’ authorities upon his arrival in Dubai from Cairo, and handed over to the Sudanese authorities in October.

Khaled, accused of involvement in blowing up an oil pipeline during a 1999 rebel operation, was an army officer during the 1989 military coup led by President Bashir.

He was discharged shortly after the overthrow of the previous regime and left Sudan to set up the armed Sudanese Alliance Forces organization, based in neighboring Eritrea, but which broke up several months later.

The Eritrean authorities detained him until they deported him to Cairo in September.