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Sudan Tribune

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Sudan Islamist opposition leader transferred to prison

January 15, 2009 (WASHINGTON) — A Sudanese Islamist leader detained by authorities yesterday was moved to the main prison in the capital as the government vowed to crackdown on any “dissention from national consensus”.

Leader of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) Hassan Al-Turabi
Leader of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) Hassan Al-Turabi
Sudan Organization Against Torture (SOAT) said in a press statement that the leader of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) Hassan Al-Turabi and Dr. Bashir Adam Rahama, the Political Officer of the party were taken to the Kober prison but did not say when.

Both men were taken into custody shortly before midnight to the headquarters of the security bureau.

The Saudi owned Al-Hayat newspaper reported that the PCP leadership council will convene an emergency meeting to formulate a response to the arrests.

The spokesperson of the Sudanese cabinet Omer Mohamed Salih said that the cabinet’s latest meeting did not discuss the arrest of Turabi.

“There is zero tolerance to any attempts to break the national consensus. We will not allow any movements to create instability and confusion” Salih told reporters.

Al-Turabi is believed to have infuriated the government by calling on president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir on Monday to surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“He should assume responsibility for whatever is happening in Darfur, displacement, burning all the villages, rapes, I mean systematic rapes, continuously, I mean on a wide scale and the killing” Turabi was quoted as saying.

ICC judges are reviewing ten counts presented by prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in mid-July that include three counts of genocide, five of crimes against humanity and two of murder and accused Al-Bashir of masterminding a campaign to get rid of the African tribes in Darfur; Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

Ever since the ICC move any views in support of the court has been suppressed. With the exception of Turabi all opposition leaders have rallied behind Bashir and condemned the ICC move.

The PCP leader office manager said that his family were denied access to him and said that Turabi may be held for a longer time that originally expected.

Yesterday’s Turabi’s wife Wisal Al-Mahdi told Sudan Tribune by phone from Khartoum said she expects the detention period to be brief.

Amnesty International rights group said that Turabi’s is being held without charges in inappropriate conditions including no access to medicine and special food.

“Al Turabi is about to turn 77 and requires medication as well as a special diet (his doctors have told him not to eat spicy or salty food)” Amnesty International said in a statement.

The group called for his immediate release saying that Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) is abusing its powers under the law which allows incommunicado detention without charge for a period up to nine months.

It is not clear if Sudanese authorities plan to press charges against Turabi or simply place him in long term detention.

Political analyst Diaa Al-Deen Bilal from the daily Al-Rayaam newspaper told Sudan Tribune that Al-Turabi’s length of detention may depend on the political developments.

Bilal further said that holding the PCP leader by the government is meant to serve as a message to other leaders who may attempt to take positions favorable to the ICC.

Al-Turabi, a former ally of President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, was the government’s ideological mastermind in the 1990s and the De-facto ruler.

However Al-Bashir and Al-Turabi split ranks and the latter was jailed on accusations of conspiracy. He was released in October 2003.

The opposition leader was jailed again for more than a year in 2004 over accusations of connections with an alleged coup plot before being released in 2005.

Al-Bashir recently accused JEM of being the military wing of the PCP something Turabi has firmly denied. The Darfurian rebels staged a bold attack and fought fierce battles with the Sudanese army on the outskirts of the capital before they were repulsed.

Following the attack Turabi was detained for question but was subsequently released.

(ST)

2 Comments

  • marial mach aduot mach
    marial mach aduot mach

    Sudan Islamist opposition leader transferred to prison
    It is good that Dr. Turabi and his mate are paying the price of their political mongering against the people of south Sudan in late 80s and early 90s. Turabi himself engineered the coup that brought president basher to powers until now. However the important message regarding his arrest will educate some people in Goss that include former defectors and basher’s puppets in Khartoum and south that include Bona malual to watch their steps because they will be next after Dr. Turabi who have work tirelessly and indefatigably to make basher as the president but now things are changing and the former political friends had become the foes in political flied, can these show southerners the way to stop political hatred and unite themselves? Beside, time had come for us to choose the leader who will lead people to what they people want not what they need as the leaders. But for those who stabbed the SPLA at the back during the people’s struggling, peace has come, and your leadership capabilities will once again be tested, and for your information, Khartoum or basher himself has become wild and not ready to take further accommodation for those who had bloods of kids and oldies in their hands because he had is own too from Darfur and south Sudan.

    SPLA OYE!! SOUTH SUDAN OYE!

    By
    Marial mach aduot mach

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