Political prisoners freed under Sudan amnesty

Khartoum: Sudanese authorities on Tuesday freed the first seven political prisoners under a presidential amnesty but the opposition said inmates from the country’s warzones were still awaiting a taste of freedom.

The six men and a woman are all members of the country’s opposition political alliance, said Farouk Abu Eisa, who heads the coalition of more than 20 parties.

Most had been held for nearly three months.

“It is a step forward but we are waiting for many other steps,” Eisa told AFP, adding there are “hundreds” of prisoners across the country including in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states where rebels have been fighting government forces for almost two years.

The six men walked free to the embrace of relatives waiting outside Kober Prison in Khartoum North, an AFP photographer said. The woman was released at a different location.

Issa accused authorities of holding some of them in solitary confinement, while three had been kept at security service detention centres, he said.

In a speech opening a new session of parliament on Monday, President Omar Al Bashir said all political prisoners would be freed as the government seeks a broad political dialogue, a move welcomed by the opposition as tensions ease with South Sudan.

“We confirm we will continue our communication with all political and social powers without excluding anyone, including those who are armed, for a national dialogue which will bring a solution to all the issues,” Al Bashir said.

One of the liberated prisoners, Yousuf Al Koda who heads the Islamic Centrist Party, told AFP he is ready for Al Bashir’s dialogue if it is “serious.”

“I didn’t do anything against the constitution,” Al Koda said through a translator.

He was arrested about two months ago after signing with armed rebels a document calling for regime change. Other freed prisoners, including opposition party members Hesham Mufti and Abdul Aziz Khalid, were held for their involvement with a similar charter reached early January in Uganda.

Amnesty International said they were arrested as a suspected “reprisal” for their parties’ signing of the charter for toppling Al Bashir’s 24-year regime using both armed and peaceful means.

Opposition members were still waiting to see whether prisoners belonging to the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan and Blue Nile will be among those set free.

The SPLM-N had been demanding a prisoner release, according to the political opposition.

Farouk Mohammad Ebrahim, of the Sudanese Organisation for Defence of Rights and Freedoms, said his organisation is handling the cases of 118 SPLM-N prisoners in southern Blue Nile alone.

Ebrahim said on Tuesday that it is not yet clear whether those 118 will be included in the amnesty.

“No SPLM-N has been released,” rebel chairman Malek Agar told AFP in a written message on Tuesday.

He earlier said he was not sure which political prisoners Al Bashir was referring to. Rebels from the far-west Darfur region have also been detained.

A diplomatic source late Monday called Bashir’s statements positive but said it is too early to know where they are leading.

“We should wait until we see clear results,” said the source, asking for anonymity. “Action is what counts here in Sudan.”

Al Bashir’s speech elaborated on an offer made last week by Vice-President Ali Osman Taha, who invited the SPLM-N and opposition political parties to join a constitutional dialogue.

Sudan needs a new constitution to replace the 2005 document based on a peace agreement which ended a 23-year civil war and led to South Sudan’s separation in July 2011.

The government had long rejected negotiations with the insurgents which it alleged were backed by South Sudan.

A potential way forward emerged after the two countries in early March finally settled on detailed timetables to implement crucial economic and security pacts to ease tensions.