SUDAN: A former member of Sudanese Islamist Hassan al-Turabi's opposition party yesterday said some ex-colleagues had plotted to take up arms against the state, as a government crackdown continued on the party's activities.
The allegation by Mohamed al-Hassan al-Amin, who was a member of the legal department of the currently suspended Popular Congress (PC) party, was denied by a senior official of the party, who said it had been made under duress.
Sudanese authorities arrested about 70 PC members in Khartoum this month after discovering three large caches of rifles, mortars and other weapons they said were to be used in a plot to sabotage the government.
Troops were deployed in downtown Khartoum yesterday. They closed off areas surrounding President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's residence, army headquarters and other government buildings and searched cars at checkpoints.
Mr Amin said he resigned from the party last week. "The main reason I defected is that . . . some members of the party were doing what I call military preparations," he said.
"It was maybe done with the consent of some of the leaders and this activity is contrary to my beliefs. As a Muslim, it is forbidden to use military methods to take power," he added.
The deputy leader of the PC, Abdullah Hassan Ahmed, said Mr Amin had defected under pressure from the authorities and denied the party had planned armed action. Mr Amin declined to say who in the party was taking up arms. He said he had been interrogated for six days before agreeing to release the information that the party was planning military action. He said he gave the information voluntarily.
On Wednesday, 36 people appeared in court on charges of trying to "topple the constitutional system" and of "staging war against the state", said the Sudanese Media Centre, a news agency with close links to the government. The accused included "elements from the Popular Congress party", it reported.