Sudanese opposition leader prevented from travelling abroad

Security officers at Khartoum International Airport on Tuesday prevented Farouk Abu Eisa, chairman of the National Consensus Forces, a coalition of opposition parties, from leaving the country.

They claimed that the state security prosecutor imposed a travel ban on Abu Eisa, pending a lawsuit against him.

Early this month, on 5 May, Dr Amin Mekki Madani, head of the Civil Society Initiative, was halted at the airport in the same manner. He was allowed to travel to Cairo the next day.

Madani commented on the step by saying that the Minister of Justice in April had dropped all the charges against him and Faroug Abu Eisa.

Abu Eisa and Madani were detained in Khartoum on 6 December last year, one day after their return from Addis Ababa, where they had signed the Sudan Appeal, together with the National Umma Party and the Sudan Revolutionary Front rebel alliance.

The two-page Sudan Appeal communiqué calls for the ending of the civil wars in the country, the dismantling of the one-party system, and the rebuilding of Sudan based on democratic principles and equal citizenship. The signatories agree that if a peaceful regime change cannot be achieved by a nationwide dialogue, it should be enforced by a popular uprising.

The opposition leaders were held incommunicado until 23 December, when they were charged with  “undermining the constitutional order and violently opposing the authorities”, and transferred to Kober Prison in Khartoum North. Their first court session took place on 23 February.

They were “quite suddenly” released on 9 April, a few days before the start of the general election in the country.