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Sudan frees opposition leader, rights lawyer days before vote
09/04/2015
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan freed two opposition figures on Thursday, their lawyer said, in a possible conciliatory gesture ahead of elections that nearly all significant opposition parties are boycotting.
Sudanese will vote for a new parliament and president on April 13-15 though the opposition says it will shun the event, citing deteriorating freedoms and a lack of progress towards national reconciliation.
Farouk Abu Issa, head of an umbrella group of opposition parties, and prominent human rights lawyer Amin Mekki were arrested in December after signing a unity agreement with a rebel group.
"Our release was made by a decision by the minister of justice," Abu Issa told Reuters by phone after his release. Ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.
The elections are widely expected to renew the 25-year rule of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been buoyed by the International Criminal Court's decision to shelve an inquiry into possible war crimes in Darfur.
Security services have stepped up arrests of journalists and politicians, and amendments to the constitution passed in January enhanced the powers of the state's security apparatus.
Lieutenant General Fadlalla Burma Nassir, vice president of one of the main opposition groups, the Umma Party, welcomed the release of Abu Issa and Mekki but said it would not lead to moves to cancel its boycott.
"It does not change the broader environment in Sudan, where the government is cracking down on the opposition, on civil society, on the media," he told Reuters.
Jerome Tubiana, the International Crisis Group think-tank's Sudan analyst, said the release would have a limited impact.
"I don't think it will change the boycott and the elections themselves won't be validated by the international community, but the government's hope with this is to change the atmosphere a little".
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