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The former parliamentary Speaker and leader of the Popular National Congress (PNC) opposition party, Hasan al-Turabi, was on Tuesday moved from prison and placed under house arrest in a government “guesthouse”, in Kafuri suburb, north Khartoum, Muhammad Dirdiery, spokesman of the Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi told IRIN.
Turabi was moved for no other than “humanitarian reasons”, he said.
This was something “usually accorded to politicians in prison”, and had “no political significance”, he added.
Turabi had been in detention along with a number of his aides since 21 February, the day after he signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the rebel Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
Samson Kwaje, spokesman for the SPLM/A in Nairobi, told IRIN that he feared for the life of Turabi. “It is dangerous for him to be moved. He was much safer with his colleagues in prison,” he said. Kwaje said that these “so-called guesthouses” were “ghost houses, where political prisoners are tortured and killed”.
Kwaje said the international community should bring pressure to bear on the government of Sudan to give Turabi “a speedy trial in a court of law”. “I am sure he will be acquitted, since he committed no crime,” Kwaje told IRIN.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions