Sudan president pardons opponents accused of plot
December 31, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Monday pardoned 30 opposition members accused of plotting against the state and ordered their immediate release.
“I have decided to pardon the accused of their attempt at sabotage and I have ordered their immediate release,” Beshir told a large crowd gathered in Khartoum to mark the country’s 52nd anniversary of independence.
The pardon is aimed at “strengthening national reconciliation and opening a new page,” he said.
Members of the Sudanese military are among those pardoned as well as leading opposition figure Ali Mahmud Hussein, vice president of the Democratic Unionist Party headed by Mohammed Othman al-Mirghani.
Another opposition leader, Mubarak al-Fadhel, was ordered released on December 2 by Justice Minister Ali al-Mardhi because of a lack of proof.
All 31 were detained in mid-July and were set to be tried for plotting against state security, inciting violence, crimes against the state and on anti-terrorism charges.
Former military officers were to tried under legislation forbidding their involvement in any political activity.
On November 7, Fadhel and Hussein went on hunger strike to protest at being detained without charge since July 14.
Fadhel is leader of a breakaway faction of the opposition Umma party formerly allied with the regime and was interior minister at the time of the 1989 coup that brought Beshir to power. He became a presidential adviser in 2002, but was sacked the following year.
(AFP)