Sudan frees jailed opposition leader

Supporters of opposition leader Sadiq al-Mahdi welcome him back at his home in Omdurman after he was released yesterday.

AFP/Khartoum

Sudan’s former prime minister Sadiq al-Mahdi was released from custody yesterday, one month after state security agents detained him in a case that sparked concern from Western governments.

A smiling Mahdi, chief of the opposition Umma party, greeted about 200 noisy supporters at his headquarters in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman.

The National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) arrested Mahdi on May 17 after he reportedly accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of rape and other abuses of civilians in western Sudan’s Darfur region.

The RSF, whose commanders denied that their unit had raped, looted or committed arson, is under the authority of NISS.

Mahdi was charged with treason-related offences which can bring a death sentence upon conviction, but the status of those charges was not immediately clear yesterday.

State Minister of Information Yassir Yousef said Mahdi was freed after his legal team appealed to the justice minister to exercise his authority to drop or suspend charges.

After his arrest, Mahdi’s party pulled out of talks with the ruling National Congress and other parties aimed at resolving the multiple crises gripping the impoverished, war-torn country.

In brief comments to supporters after his release, Mahdi did not specifically say whether Umma would rejoin the national dialogue.

He said that after further talks with a cross-section of Sudanese who have united behind him over the RSF incident, “I will respond as to what we are going to do.”

Mahdi spoke after women ululated in welcome and other supporters shouted that he is “the voice of the people”.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir appealed in January for dialogue and hinted at greater freedoms.

After that, a tenuous political opening occurred as parties rallied without interference from security forces, and reports on alleged official corruption flourished in local newspapers.

But analysts said that, even if Bashir is serious about reform, his party is divided and the powerful security service is opposed.

About one week after Mahdi’s arrest, prosecutors banned journalists from reporting on the case.

A watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, warned of authorities’ “increasingly repressive attitude to the media”, despite government talk of greater freedoms.

The United States and British embassies had expressed “deep concern” over Mahdi’s arrest, while the European Union delegation in Khartoum called on all sides to back the national dialogue and to “abstain from acts and statements that might derail the process”.