Al Jazeera
12 May 2008
Family members of Hassan al-Turabi, an opposition Sudanese politician, say he has been freed 12 hours after questioning following his arrest for alleged links to a failed attack on a suburb of the capital Khartoum.
"He's at home," his daughter told the Reuters news agency on Monday.
The government imposed a curfew on Saturday in Khartoum and adjoining areas in response to the daring assault by fighters of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur-based anti-government group.
Al-Turabi denies that he has any links to the group.
Earlier, Awad Babiker, al-Turabi's private secretary, said he was arrested shortly after the curfew was lifted on Sunday.
Babiker said that four other members of al-Turabi's party, the Popular Congress, had been detained.
The government accuses the Popular Congress of having links to JEM.
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Mahjoub Fadl, press secretary of Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's president, claimed on Monday that authorities found documents confirming links between leaders of the Popular Congress and the JEM attack in Omdurman.
Amr el-Kakhy, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Khartoum, said: "It's well known that al-Turabi was a key partner of President Bashir in the coup that brought them to power in the 1980s.
"Since then, they have had their differences and al-Turabi was jailed. He was released on the condition that he would stay away from political life.
"Whenever something happens, al-Turabi is usually blamed - he is known for his criticism of the government."
Fighters 'chased'
Sudan's state television said on Sunday that the curfew was lifted in districts no longer affected by the fighting, identifying them as Khartoum, Khartoum North and the centre of Omdurman.
The previous day, government forces and JEM fighters clashed in Omdurman on the western bank of the Nile opposite Khartoum.
Khalil Ibrahim, JEM's leader, said that his organisation was prepared to launch further attacks on Khartoum in an attempt to topple the Sudanese government.
"This is just the start of a process and the end is the termination of this regime ... Don't expect just one more attack," he said.
But Jan Eliasson, the UN envoy on Darfur, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that JEM had nothing to gain from the attack.
"I told representatives of JEM they will not achieve any sense of victory from this situation," he said.
"I fear the situation may get out of control, and this will prove disastrous to the people of Darfur."
Relations severed
Sudan broke off diplomatic relations with Chad on Sunday, accusing its neighbour of involvement in the previous day's attack.
"We are now cutting our diplomatic relations with this regime," al-Bashir said on state television.
"These forces [behind the attack] are all basically Chadian forces supported and prepared by Chad and they moved from Chad under the leadership of Khalil Ibrahim."
But the Chadian government has denied "all involvement" .
The violence in western Sudan has killed thousands and left millions displaced.