Government releases prominent political prisoner

The Sudanese government on Thursday released a prominent politician, Hassan al-Turabi, who was detained last year on suspicion of plotting a coup. "[I announce] the release of all political detainees," President Umar al-Bashir said in a speech at the Green Square in the capital, Khartoum, to mark the 16th anniversary of the 1989 coup that brought him to power. Security authorities released Turabi, secretary-general of the Islamist opposition party, the Popular National Congress, and all other political detainees shortly after the President's announcement, the official Sudanese news agency reported. Turabi has been in detention and under house arrest without charge since March 2004. Bashir's former mentor and an influential Islamist ideologue, he rallied behind the President in 1989 but was detained for about two years after losing a power struggle with Bashir in 2001. Analysts consider him the architect of Sudan's policies of Arab and Islamist nationalism, and the force behind the country’s adoption of Shari'a law and rigorous Islamic practices, particularly affecting the rights of women. In his address to the nation, Bashir also announced that the state of emergency, in place since 1989, would be lifted in all parts of the country except the western states of Darfur, and Red Sea and Kassala State in the east, as soon as the interim constitution was signed. Sudan's draft interim constitution, agreed after protracted negotiations between the government, the southern Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) and a number of other political parties, will now come into force on 9 July, the day a new government of national unity is expected to be sworn in. "Nine July, God willing, will see the signing of the constitution that will govern the transitional period, as well as the oath of allegiance to the Presidency of the Republic," Bashir said. The political climate in Khartoum has been energized by the 9 January signing of a Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A, which ended more than 20 years of civil war. The President reviewed the progress made by his government in the last 16 years and pledged, inter alia, to uphold gender equality by "assisting women politically, socially and economically", and to improve maternal and child care. The war between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government in the south erupted in 1983 when rebels took up arms against authorities based in the north to demand greater autonomy. The fighting has killed at least two million people, uprooted four million more, and forced another 550,000 to flee to neighbouring countries.