Sudan jailed opposition leaders to go on hunger strike

By Wasil Ali

November 4, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Two opposition leaders jailed by the Sudanese government for over four months will begin a hunger strike next Wednesday to protest what they describe as “unlawful detention”.

A statement issued by the office of Mubarak al-Fadil, leader of the Umma Reform and Renewal opposition party said that he and Ali Mahmoud Hassanein, the Deputy Secretary-General of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), will continue the hunger strike until they are released or prosecuted in the court of law.

Sudanese security services arrested Al-Fadil and Hassanein last July over allegations of planning sabotage actions in the country.

The former presidential assistant was arrested along with a number of retired army generals, including retired general Mohamed Ali Hamid, who worked as deputy director of security in the late eighties, as well as former minister of tourism, Abdeljalil al-Basha.

The statement outlined legal proceedings taken in their case and alleged that they violate their constitutional rights.

“It is very clear now that we have no links to the coup attempt the authorities is talking about. The coup only existed in the minds of the authorities which tried to market it to arrest us and avenge us as political opponents” the statement read.

Al-Fadil and Hassanein said in the statement that the Judge and the prosecutor have been renewing their detention indefinitely without charges.

Last week the daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat published in London quoted unidentified security officials as saying that Sudan’s military intelligence division and the Security bureau exchanged blame on the validity of evidence linking opposition leaders to the plot.

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat said that Sudan’s military intelligence division officers who were present during the interrogation sessions with the detainees filed a report dismissing the existence of the alleged coup attempt.

The report filed also suggested that Sudan Security bureau may have been misled by informants who are under investigation. Security officials also told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that a Captain in the Sudanese army believed to be the main source of the information implicating Al-Fadil and others is also under investigation.

Sudan’s announcement of thwarting the coup attempt was received with skepticism due to the vague nature of the plot and officials have been making contradictory statements regarding the sabotage plot.

Originally Sudanese security officials said that the sabotage plot leader Mubarak al-Fadil sought help from a neighboring Arab country and a “major world power”.

The two countries were believed to be Libya and the United States respectively.

But then Sudanese officials denied any foreign involvement and upgraded charges against Al-Fadil to a full blown coup attempt and said that political assassinations was part of the plot.

However security officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity said al-Fadil had sought support from Libya. The officials said Libya had turned him down and informed Sudanese authorities.

Last week Salah Gosh, the head of Sudan’s National Security and Intelligence Service, told the Al-Ahdath daily from Libya that his office no longer has anything to do with the proceedings of the coup attempt.

Analysts speaking to Sudan Tribune from Khartoum said that Gosh’s statements reflect the government’s attempts to find a way out on the case after the evidence turned out to be “baseless”.

Al-Fadil was appointed as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002 but was sacked after making contacts with the United States without Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir’s consent.

(ST)