KHARTOUM: Seven Sudanese military officers convicted and jailed over a coup attempt walked free yesterday, just days after they were sentenced.
The seven converged on the home of Brigadier Mohammed Ibrahim, who had received the heaviest sentence of five years in prison.
Wearing civilian clothes and shouting Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), Ibrahim and the others were greeted by hundreds of supporters, relatives and neighbours as celebratory gunfire sounded.
It was not immediately clear why they were released early but they had requested a presidential pardon on April 9, two days after their sentencing.
The officers could potentially have been executed for the case which analysts say reflects political struggle within the 24-year regime of President Omar Hassan Al Bashir, who himself took power in a coup.
A military court ordered the soldiers dismissed from the military and issued sentences ranging from two to five years in prison for the plot. They asked Bashir to pardon them as “political prisoners” under a wide-ranging amnesty which he announced early this month, the army said.
“Now we are free and the case is finished for us,” Ibrahim said in brief comments after revellers slaughtered four sheep and hoisted the smiling officers on their shoulders.
The army originally said 11 officers were convicted but one of the defence lawyers gave the total as nine.
Two colonels had already been released in recent days, a regional political expert said.
The soldiers were found guilty of “attempting to undermine the constitutional and security system and threaten the country’s unity and harm the armed forces by the use of force,” the army has said. Officials gave only vague details about the November plot which analysts said was linked to hardcore Islamist officers who had once firmly backed the regime.AFP
