Sudan has freed two outspoken former government officials from prison, according to attorneys, as part of trust-building attempts to overcome the country’s political deadlock.

Sudan was thrown into upheaval when a military coup in October upended the country’s brief path to democracy following three decades of harsh leadership by former strongman Omar Al-Bashir. In April 2019, a popular rebellion deposed Al-Bashir and his Islamist-backed administration.

Khalid Omar, a former Cabinet Affairs Minister, was released late Tuesday, while Mohammed Al-Faki Suliman, a former member of the governing Sovereign Council, walked out from a jail in Khartoum on Wednesday, according to their defense team.

According to their attorneys, the Criminal Court in northern Khartoum denied prosecutors’ plea to extend their imprisonment awaiting investigations into a variety of vague allegations, including violation of public trust.

Both Omar and Suliman were arrested along with scores of other officials during the Oct. 25 coup and freed a month later as part of a compromise struck in between military and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. After failing to bridge the rift among generals and the protest movement, the premier resigned in January.

The two men were re-arrested in February as part of the generals’ assault on anti-coup organizations. Dozens of activists have also been imprisoned as a result of the ongoing protests against the military takeover.

According to a Sudanese medical association, the crackdown on protestors killed more than 90 individuals, the majority of them were young males and injured many more.

Suliman was also the deputy leader of a government-run institution dedicated to eradicating the rule of former dictatorial President Omar Al-Bashir. The organization is called The Committee to Dismantle the Regime of June 30, 1989, after the Islamist-backed military coup that brought Al-Bashir to office. It was established following the rebellion and worked for two years to remove Al-Bashir supporters from government institutions.

The generals, including coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, have long chastised the agency’s work. Following the coup, it was disbanded, and the generals created a new committee to evaluate its decisions. Many of the agency’s decisions were reversed, which critics of the military saw as a means to empower Islamists who backed the generals.

Other members of The Committee to Dismantle the Regime of June 30, 1989, such as Wagdi Saleh, Taha Osman, and Babiker Faisal, were also released on Wednesday, according to their defense team.

Authorities released around two dozen activists imprisoned in recent weeks in connection with anti-coup protests earlier this month.

The military takeover has thrown the country into disarray and thrown its already shaky economy into free decline, with living standards fast deteriorating.

Volker Perthes, the UN ambassador for Sudan, warned in March that unless the political impasse is resolved, Sudan would face “an economic and security catastrophe.” Perthes’ remarks to the United Nations Security Council enraged the generals, and Burhan threatened to deport him.

Perthes is presently leading cooperative efforts with the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority in Development, an eight-nation East African regional group, to organize Sudanese-led political discussions. Perthes and the envoys from the two organizations attended a joint news conference in Khartoum on Wednesday to discuss their activities.

The Sudanese Professionals Association and the Resistance Committees, the two primary protest groups that have spearheaded the revolt against Al-Bashir and the ongoing anti-coup marches, did not respond immediately. They have long urged that the military be removed from power and that a truly civilian administration be established.

The generals, on the other hand, have stated that they will only hand over control to a democratically elected administration. Elections will be held in July 2023, according to a constitutional article controlling the transitional phase.

For the latest International News Follow BOL News on Google News. Read more on Latest International News on oldsite.bolnews.com