President Umar al-Bashir announced on Sunday that mediation attempts had failed between him and the detained former Speaker of parliament and opposition leader, Hasan al-Turabi. At a news conference in the capital, Khartoum, Bashir told journalists that Turabi would stand trial on charges of conspiring to overthrow him. A group of Islamic scholars had failed in their mission to mediate between the two former political allies and friends. Bashir said Turabi’s Popular National Congress had refused to rescind an accord signed with the southern based Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), which was the reason why mediation attempts had failed, Associated Press (AP) said. The mediators, led by Yemen’s Abd al-Majid al-Zindani, met Turabi in a central Khartoum prison on Saturday 14 April. Bashir told journalists that legal action against Turabi would “continue in accordance with the law”, and denied previous reports that Turabi would be exiled or placed under house arrest, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
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