Sudan: Military releases prominent opposition figure as other officials kept behind bars

After an extended detention facing corruption charges, prominent Sudanese politician and former Cabinet minister Khalid Omer Yousif was released on bail on Tuesday, a lawyer on his defence team said.

Yousif and other politicians were arrested in February following a coup by the military leaders who shared power with the civilian coalition they are part of. 

They previously worked on a committee tasked with dismantling the Omar al-Bashir regime.

Two other prominent members and former officials, Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman and Wagdi Salih, were not released and are being held on other charges, lawyer Iqbal Ahmed told Reuters. The two men were outspoken critics of the military prior to the coup.

Sudanese politicians Babiker Faisal and Taha Othman were ordered to pay a "prohibitive bond" of 25 million Sudanese pounds each, Ahmed said.

"This decision indicates the continuation of the coup leaders' policy of unlawful detentions and malicious charges," Jaafar Hassan, spokesman for the Forces of Freedom and Change coalition, said in a statement, adding that they would not be paying the bonds.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan earlier this month said he discussed the possibility of the men's release while maintaining they were not political detainees.

Burhan has not yet appointed a new prime minister as numerous initiatives to come to an agreement with political parties have not come to fruition.

Donors have demanded a credible civilian government to restart much-needed aid blocked after the coup.

Burhan and other generals have criticised the work of the Committee to Dismantle the June 30 1989 Regime, which the politicians were part of, and created a new committee to review its decisions. Its members were arrested on charges of betraying the public trust.

Many of the committee's decisions regarding the firing of Bashir loyalists from the civil service have been reversed in recent weeks, as analysts say Burhan seeks to rely on the Islamists that were in power before the 2019 uprising to form a new government.