Sudanese authorities release more opposition detainees
April 11, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese authorities on Thursday freed four detainees belonging to the opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) who were held on charges of planning to overthrow the government in 2003 and were imprisoned ever since.
Their names are Halim Adam Sabi, Moussa Ishag, Ali Ahmed Al-Tayeb and Ibrahim Adam Haroun.
“They have been freed today after spending 103 months in prison,” Kamal Omer, the party’s political secretary general told Agence France Presse (AFP).
But another longtime PCP detainee named Yusuf Mohamed Saleh Libis was kept in jail. He is considered one of the key security elements in the PCP and is better known for carrying out suicide attacks against South Sudan rebels during the civil war years.
Observers say that Khartoum believes that Libis has knowledge of sensitive military secrets and fears he could share it with PCP and Darfur rebels.
The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir announced an amnesty to political prisoners this month in a speech delivered at the opening session of parliament, saying his government is committed to inclusive dialogue with all groups, regardless of their political affiliation.
Seven inmates benefited from the pardon and were released last week including six prominent members of opposition political parties that participated in signing the New Dawn charter earlier this year in Uganda which called for military action among other means to topple the existing government.
The PCP head Hassan al-Turabi who received the released members at his home hailed it as “rare good news” for his party but underscored that their joy is incomplete without uprooting the regime.
Turabi told reporters afterwards at his residence that the Sudanese people and the country will not be safe and secure without the departure of the “tyrannical” and “oppressive” regime?
He expressed optimism that the government dominated by the National Congress Party (NCP) is nearing its end as demonstrated by what he described as internal turmoil that have began hitting the ranks.
“They [NCP] will be hit abruptly after [Sudanese] people have given up,” Turabi said.
The Islamist figure stressed however that he wants a peaceful transition in the country to a government that is representative of the Sudanese people and spreads freedoms. He suggested that he will not agree to any dialogue with the NCP without a conducive environment and agreeing to conditions stipulated by opposition parties.
Turabi was presidentBashir’s close political and religious ally since the 1989 coup that was planned by the National Islamic Front (NIF) he led at the time.
However, both men fell out together in a bitter power struggle that started in 1999. Since then Turabi has been in and out of jail but was released along with all other political prisoners after a north-south peace deal in 2005. He is now one of the fiercest critics of the government.
The government has persistently accused the Turabi’s PCP of being the political mastermind of the Darfur Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) fighting the Sudanese army in the restive region since 2003.
(ST)