Sudan holds Turabi for another year

The President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has ordered that the Islamic opposition leader, Hassan al-Turabi, be held under house arrest for another year.

The official Sudanese news agency Suna said the presidential decree was based on state-of-emergency regulations and the Sudanese constitution.

The move follows a denial by the chairman of the constitutional court on Saturday that Mr Turabi was about to be released.

Mr Turabi's says he suspects the Sudanese authorities will never release his father.

Sidig al-Turabi told the BBC that President Bashir's stated intention was to keep his father imprisoned forever.

Mr Turabi and several colleagues in the opposition Sudan Popular National Congress were arrested in February last year on charges of trying to undermine the constitution and waging war against the state.

The arrests came amid a growing power struggle in Khartoum between Mr Turabi and the president, whom Mr Turabi had helped to seize power in a coup in 1989.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service