KHARTOUM: A senior Sudanese opposition figure jailed in connection with an alleged coup attempt nine years ago has been released, his party said on Tuesday.
Yousef Mohammed Saleh Lebis, of the Popular Congress Party led by Sudan's veteran Islamist Hassan al-Turabi, walked free on Sunday, said Kamal Omar, head of the party's political bureau.
He told AFP that the initiative to free Lebis came from Darfuri members of the ruling National Congress Party.
Four other Popular Congress members jailed over the alleged subversion in 2004 were freed in April under an amnesty for political prisoners.
President Omar al-Bashir announced the pardons as part of a broad political dialogue "which will bring a solution to all the issues."
His regime, which itself seized power in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup, has faced worsening unrest this year by armed Arab groups formerly allied to it in the western Darfur region, where anti-government rebels have also been fighting for 10 years.
The Darfur insurgents are allied with others in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in a bid to topple the government.
At the same time, the NCP regime has been grappling with a troubled economy since South Sudan separated with most of the country's oil production in 2011.
Arab Spring-inspired demonstrations broke out around the country last year but failed to gain momentum and fizzled out in a security clampdown. (AFP)
