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Six opposition members freed

    NAIROBI

    Six Sudanese opposition figures have been released from jail by an appeal court pending the outcome of their trial. The six are all members of the home-based wing of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) secretariat, official sources confirmed to IRIN.
    The NDA brings together the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLA) and several northern opposition groups. Those released are Joseph Okelu, the home-based NDA’s secretary-general, Ali Ahmad al-Sayyid, Al-Tijani Mustafa, Muhammad Wid’atallah, Muhammad Mahjub and Muhammad Sulayman, news agency said. They were arrested in early December last year during a meeting with a United States diplomat, and were accused of espionage. The US diplomat, Glenn Warren, was later expelled from Sudan.

    A lower court had earlier rejected the release of the six on the grounds that they faced charges which carry the death penalty, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said on Wednesday. The appeal court overturned the court’s ruling, asserting that the charges carried an alternative sentence of life imprisonment. The six were released on Wednesday and allowed to go home, news agency said. Official sources said their release on bail was effected in accordance with “normal judicial proceedings” and not for political reasons.

    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

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