Turabi’s party accuses Sudan of ‘forcibly arresting opponents’

Sudan’s Popular Congress Party (PCP) yesterday accused the country’s transitional government of “forcibly arresting opponent figures”.

Since early June, the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC) was reported to have been arresting prominent opponents for what it described as “inciting violations”.

“We have been following the campaign of illegal political arrests against Sudanese cadres, party leaders, and political activists,” the party – founded by the late Hassan Al-Turabi – said in a statement.

It described the government move as a “clear violation of freedoms and human rights,” adding that the arrests were “infringing the council’s pledges and conventions.”These “arbitrary arrests”, it added, “expose” the government’s allegations that it plans to build “a lawful state” as untrue, the statement stressed.

Last week, authorities arrested nine agents from the old regime of ousted President Omar Al-Bashir as they prepared for “aggression actions” in relation to planned mass protests.

Activists had called for demonstrations on 30 June to pile pressure on the transitional government to implement “goals of the revolution” that ousted long-serving Al-Bashir last year.

Protesters demand a reform of the security agencies, forming a transitional parliament and appointing civilian governors of the state instead of the current military governors.

Supporters of Al-Bashir’s former ruling party have also called for demonstrations on June 30 to bring down the transitional government.

READ: The presence of Sudanese militias in Libya is destabilising for Sudan