Sudan’s opposition party expects release of its detainees on Saturday

May 2, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Two Sudanese oppositionists detained since last year are expected to be released on Saturday, their party has said.

The Popular Congress Party (PCP) said on Wednesday that its assistant secretary-general, Ibrahim Al-Sanousi, and secretary of industry, Ali Shamar, have completed the four-month legal period of preventive detention under the law governing the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

According to a press release by the PCP’s secretary of justice and human rights, Hassan Abd-allah Al-Hussein, the two men have spent a period of four months and 15 days in NISS custody and should therefore be released on Saturday.

The pair was detained at Khartoum airport in December last year following their return from a trip to neighboring South Sudan and Uganda.

The NISS director-general, Mohammed Atta, later said that Al-Sanousi was caught in the possession of documents written by the PCP’s leader, Hassan Al-Turabi, on a planned military coup.

The PCP denied the allegations and later released a copy of the said documents which – as received by Sudan Tribune – did mention the possibility of a military coup but dismissed it as an unlikely outcome.

Al-Turabi is facing accusations by authorities in Khartoum that he is coordinating with rebel groups based in South Sudan to topple the government, a charge the PCP denies without renouncing its commitment to regime change.

The PCP said that the NISS had refused their request to visit Al-Sanousi who, the party warned, is an old man and in poor health.

(ST)