KHARTOUM, 1 July 2005 — Sudan yesterday released prominent opposition leader Hassan Turabi, detained last year on suspicion of plotting a coup, in a step toward reconciliation among Khartoum’s political elite.
Hundreds of supporters shouting “Allah-o-Akbar” welcomed Turabi, a former ally of President Omar Bashir, to his Popular Congress party headquarters, which reopened yesterday after the authorities lifted a ban on its activities.
Dressed in his usual white cloak and neatly bound turban, Turabi said the government had released him only under pressure. “I may go back to prison again. So my coming out is something transient,” he said.
Earlier, Bashir said in a speech that his government had decided to release all political prisoners and undertake other reform measures.
The political climate in Khartoum has improved since the government and southern rebels signed an agreement in January ending more than 20 years of civil war.
A new government, including the southern rebels, is expected to take office in August under a new constitution, which is still being negotiated.
Bashir said that, as soon as the interim constitution was signed in July, a state of emergency would come to an end except in troubled parts of the vast country — the western region of Darfur and two states in the east.
Turabi has been in detention or house arrest since March 2004.
The Islamist leader, who was born in 1932 and has spent several periods in custody during a tumultuous career, was accused of plotting a coup against his former ally Bashir. He was never charged and did not face trial.
Umma Party leader and former Prime Minister Sadiq Al-Mahdi, Turabi’s brother-in-law and usually a political rival, was among the crowds of well-wishers who came to greet him on his release.
The authorities have linked Turabi’s Popular Congress with the rebellion in the western region of Darfur, for which Turabi expressed sympathy yesterday.
“We are in favor of the political demands of the people of Darfur and the east of Sudan... We want freedom for the Sudanese people,” he said.
Other members of the Popular Congress were implicated in a second alleged coup attempt in September last year.
Turabi is the former mentor of Bashir, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1989. However, the two parted ways after a power struggle in 2001. Turabi was then detained for about two years. He was also jailed immediately after the 1989 coup.
It is was not immediately clear how many others would leave jail and whether any had yet come out.
The government needs to broaden its support base at home to counter UN and US pressure to hand over people accused of war crimes in the Darfur conflict. The government says it will try any suspects in Sudanese courts.
