Government releases opposition leaders

The Sudanese government has freed two senior members of the opposition Popular National Congress (PNC) after more than two months in prison, Reuters reported. Adam Rahmah, a former governor of Western Kordofan State, and Awad Babikr were arrested and held without charge, along with 20 other top officials, when security forces stormed a PNC general assembly meeting in May, Reuters said.

Some observers say the move signals a softening of the government's approach to the party. On his release from detention on 27 July, Muhammad Hasan al-Amin, secretary of legal and constitutional affairs in the PNC, was quoted as saying by Associated Press (AP): "We believe that the detentions and [other] measures have begun to ease since the government approved the joint Egyptian-Libyan [peace initiative]." The Egyptian-Libyan peace plan, which the government and several opposition groups have accepted, stipulates that the principles of democratic pluralism, freedom of expression, and basic freedoms and human rights should be observed.

PNC chief Hasan al-Turabi is still being detained by Khartoum, pending trial on treason charges. Turabi, a radical Islamist scholar and former Speaker of the National Assembly, was arrested in February after signing a memorandum of understanding with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army.