Sudan says to free political prisoners – paper
KHARTOUM, Aug 14 (Reuters) – Sudan has said it will free all political prisoners in the next few days, a government-owned newspaper said on Thursday, the latest in a series of vows to boost political freedom in a country torn by 20 years of civil war.
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir issued a decree on Tuesday lifting censorship by the security service of newspapers and prior to that released some 32 political prisoners.
Analysts have said the releases could be an attempt to broaden support for the Islamist government of Bashir, who came to power in a 1989 military coup, in its peace talks with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).
“Decrees will be issued in the coming days for the release of all political detainees with the aim of closing the file of preventive detention in Sudan,” the government-owned al-Anbaa paper said, quoting Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin.
The recent initiatives have raised speculation that Bashir could soon release Sudan’s most prominent political prisoner Hassan al-Turabi, the Islamist leader of the opposition Popular National Congress (PNC), a former Bashir ally.
But a senior member of the PNC Mohamed al-Amin Khalifa told Reuters that growing calls for freeing political detainees might achieve the release of other prisoners but not Turabi.
“The government is afraid of Turabi…They think that when he comes out, the other politicians and political parties will gather around him and make trouble for it,” he said.
Turabi was arrested in February 2001 for crimes against the state following a power struggle with the president.
Turabi’s defence lawyers said there was no longer any legal justification for Turabi’s detention and demanded his release in a written statement, the independent newspaper al-Sahafa said.
Turabi was arrested after signing a controversial deal with the SPLA, which has been fighting since 1983 for greater autonomy in the mainly Christian and animist south. Talks to end the conflict are going on in Kenya.