Sudan calls Interpol to hunt for Darfur opposition leaders accused of coup plot

KHARTOUM, Nov 28, 2004 (Al-Sahafa) — The Ministry of Justice officially urged Interpol to return four of the Darfur opposition politicians accused of carrying out the recent coup attempt.

A reliable official source from the state prosecution on crimes committed against the state told Al-Sahafah that the prosecution had issued a warrant to Interpol to extradite the four accused of being involved in the recent coup attempt in accordance to what investigations have proved.

It affirmed that that the list included the leader of Justice and Equality Movement, Dr Khalil Ibrahim, the organizational leader of the Popular National Congress, who is also the former minister of agriculture, Abdallah Zakariyah and Basharah Sulayman.

Meanwhile the commission defending some of the other coup attempt suspects said that the prosecution did not allow them to meet their clients since their arrest and until they were officially charged last Monday.

In a statement released yesterday, the commission said the suspects were denied their right to appeal in a week’s time, with the deadline ending tomorrow. The prosecution allowed the commission to meet the suspects yesterday and told the security body guarding them to facilitate the meeting but the security team did not get back to them the commission as ordered until official working hours had expired.

The defence commission said this step deprived those suspects of their constitutional rights and the right to appeal because their lawyers were not able to meet them pointing out that it would start taking legal measures to protest the suspects’ continued custody under the security guards.

Material from the BBC Monitoring Service.