Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir on Monday ordered the release of dissident Islamist Hassan Al Turabi as well as opposition leaders being tried for plotting an alleged US-backed uprising, reports said.
In a speech to Parliament, Bashir suspended the trial of the leaders of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who were arrested last December during a meeting with a US diplomat, and ordered their release.
The US diplomat, Glenn Warren, whom the detainees were meeting when they were arrested, was ordered to leave Sudan the same month as the arrests for violating diplomatic norms by holding such talks.
Bashir also ordered the release of Turabi and colleagues from the Popular National Congress (PNC) arrested in February on charges of trying to undermine the Constitution and waging war against the state, after forging a memorandum of understanding with a rebel group.
The president suspended the lawsuit against Turabi and his colleagues, said AFP.
Sudan has been locked in an 18-year civil war between the Islamist regime based in Khartoum, and Christians and animists in the south – Albawaba.com
