Sudan Islamist leader charged with offences against the state

KHARTOUM, April 3 (AFP) — Sudan’s Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi has been charged with a raft of offences against the state and is to be tried before a special court.

Turabi, who was arrested Wednesday, is accused of “incitement to sedition, hatred of the state, sabotage and undermining the regime” and is to be tried before the state security court, the independent Sudanese Media Centre reported Saturday.

The opposition Popular Congress leader, who was detained amid government allegations of a coup attempt by sympathisers of a rebellion by indigenous minorities in the western region of Darfur, had only been at liberty for six months since being freed from three years of house arrest last year.

A one time mentor of President Omar al-Beshir, Turabi has been increasingly critical of the scorched earth policy adopted by the government in Darfur, where the United Nations says at least 10,000 have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless by clashes between the rebels and government-backed Arab militias.

In an interview published by the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday, Turabi blamed the Darfur fighting on the government’s neglect of the “population’s demands which pushed it into military action.”

The regime had deliberately “sown discord” between the formerly nomadic Arab tribes and the indigenous Fur, Zaghawa and Maasalit minorities, and allowed pro-government Arabic militias to “kill innocent civilians and rape women,” he said.

The UN Security Council gave its full support Friday to troubled peace talks in the Chadian capital Ndjamena which finally got under way between the government and the two main rebel groups earlier in the day.