Sudanese Islamic opposition leader moved from hospital to custody

KHARTOUM, Aug 16 (AFP) — Hassan Turabi, Sudan’s high-profile Islamic opposition leader, has been moved from hospital to a remand home, his son Seddiq Turabi told AFP on Monday.

Turabi, 72, who has been in hospital since June after a hunger strike which lasted a month, was now in custody in a Khartoum suburb, he said.

The hunger strike was in protest at the arrest and detention of several of his supporters without any charges being brought against them.

“Dr Turabi was moved on Sunday afternoon to a house run by the security forces in Kafuri,” Seddiq Tourabi said.

“He is in good health and his morale is excellent. His family can visit him freely but anyone else has to ask permission to see him,” he added.

A one-time mentor of President Omar al-Beshir, Turabi is awaiting trial on a raft of offences against the state including incitement to sedition, sabotage and undermining the regime.

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

The opposition leader had been increasingly critical of the scorched earth policy adopted by the government in Darfur, where the United Nations says up to 50,000 have been killed and more than a million left homeless by clashes between the rebels and state-sponsored Arab militias.