Sudanese opposition leader still in jail despite release report: party

September 11, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Congress Party (SCoP) disclosed today that its jailed leader Ibrahim al-Sheikh and eight other party figures remained in custody despite an announcement by the African Union (AU) chief mediator Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday that president Omer Hassan al-Bashir agreed to release them.

Sudanese authorities released the deputy chairman of the National Umma Party (NUP) Mariam al-Sadiq al-Mahdi this week after her arrest for nearly a month following her participation in the meetings between her party and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front (SRF) in the French capital which witnessed the signing of the “Paris Declaration”

“We inform the public opinion that Mr. Ibrahim al-Sheikh is still imprisoned in al-Obayid prison and the prison administration did not receive any instructions to release him,” the party said in a statement. The ScoP renewed call for releasing its members or quickly refer them to court.

The SCoP Secretary General Abdul Gayoom Awad al-Sayed told Sudan Tribune that the party now has eight detainees besides al-Sheikh including journalist Hassan Ishaq as well as one detainee in al-Nuhood prison by the name of Ibrahim Ahmed Salim who heads the party in Fuja region in West Kordofan.

Al-Sayed stressed that the defense team of al-Sheikh went to the Presidential Palace on Thursday to inquire about Bashir’s decree and they were told that the decision was already transmitted to the attorney general.

He added that afterwards they went to the Ministry of Justice and learned that there are contacts underway with the judiciary to enforce the decision.

Al-Sheikh has been held by Sudanese authorities since last June after speaking at a symposium in al-Nuhood in which he denounced the government militia known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and accused its fighters of committing abuses against civilians in conflict zones. He faces charges that could hand him the death penalty if convicted.

(ST)