Tunisian Islamist leader meets Bashir to press for Turabi’s release

March 10, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir met on Thursday with the head Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamist movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, according to state media.

Ghannouchi was in Khartoum where he took part in a conference hosted by Sudan on Jerusalem, which saw participation of many delegations from around the world particularly from Arab and Islamic countries.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) quoted Ghannouchi as saying that the meeting was “frank” and “brotherly” and tackled the situation in the Arab world particularly in light of recent popular revolutions which he described as a new form of liberation and overcoming internal problems.

The Islamist leader said that the revolutions made the region inch closer to Arab unity.

The uprising in Tunisia set off mass protests across a region governed for decades by monarchs and presidents. Largely peaceful demonstrations toppled Egypt’s president, while a revolt in Libya has turned bloody as Muammar Gaddafi clings to power after four decades as leader.

Ghannouchi’s party, banned for two decades, until this week is aspiring to play a political role as the country’s undergoes transition.

The Sudanese president made remarks last month saying that the Egyptian and Tunisian regimes collapsed because they suppressed the Islamist movements in their countries.

Bashir came to power through a coup in 1989 with the support of the National Islamic Front (NIF) led by Hassan Al-Turabi but the pair fell out following the introduction of a bill to limit the president’s powers in 1999, a move which the president resisted by dissolving parliament and declaring a state of emergency.

Turabi has been in an out of jail and house arrest ever since after splitting ranks with Bashir over accusations ranging from staging a coup attempt to standing behind the rebellion that broke out in Darfur.

In January, Sudanese authorities arrested Turabi again and he remains detained without charges.

Sources told Sudan Tribune that Ghannouchi pressed Sudanese officials on the release of Turabi stressing he has not been accused of any crime and that given his age it is “un-Islamic” to keep in prison.

He was joined in his position by Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal, Jordanian Islamist figure Laith Shubailat and Egyptian Islamic theologian Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Qaradawi reportedly cancelled his previously announced visit to Sudan to protest the continued detention of Turabi.

(ST)