Sudan frees 4 political prisoners after 8 years

KHARTOUM: Four members of Sudan’s opposition Popular Congress Party have been released under a presidential amnesty after more than eight years in prison, the party said yesterday.
“They have been freed today after spending 103 months in prison,” said Kamal Omer, the party’s chief of political affairs.
He said they had been sentenced to 15 years in prison over a “coup” plot.
President Omar Bashir on April 1 announced that all political prisoners would taste freedom as the government seeks a broad political dialogue, “including (with) those who are armed.”
Yesterday’s release brings to 11 the number of political detainees known to have been freed so far.
Meanwhile, Bashir can expect a “warm welcome” when he arrives in South Sudan today for talks with his counterpart Salva Kiir, official media said as tensions ease after last year’s border clashes. Bashir will be making his first journey over the disputed frontier since he attended South Sudan’s independence celebrations on July 9, 2011.
“President Bashir will discuss in his visit with Salva Kiir the relations between the two countries and how to develop and continue these relations for the benefit of both nations,” SUNA quoted Mutrif Siddiq, Khartoum’s ambassador to the Southern capital Juba, as saying.