{{The arrest of Sudan’s former prime minister and leading opposition figure Sadiq al-Mahdi undermines talks aimed at finding a way out of the country’s multiple crises, observers said on Sunday}}.
Mahdi was arrested for alleged treason by agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) from his home on Saturday night, officials of his Umma Party said.
Prosecutors questioned him on Sunday at the Khartoum-area Kober Prison where he is being held, Umma’s secretary general Sara Najdallah, told reporters.
The arrest came after Mahdi reportedly accused a counter-insurgency unit, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), of rape and other abuses of civilians in Darfur.
“We are deeply concerned. This isn’t the way to do national dialogue,” a British embassy spokesman said.
Magdi El Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute, said Mahdi’s detention reflects a power play by elements of the state security service who “don’t care” about the impact on the dialogue initiated by President Omar al-Bashir.
“The political system in Sudan is the rule of the military and the security,” Gizouli told reporters
AFP
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