Sudan detains opposition leader, shuts down group’s paper in crackdown

Sudan detains opposition leader

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Officials say a prominent Sudanese opposition leader has been detained and his party’s newspaper shut down.

The minister of information and communication says Hassan Turabi, leader of the opposition Popular Congress Party, has been accused of incitement and undermining security.

Turabi’s deputy Abdullah Hassan Ahmed says Sunday’s arrest is part of a government crackdown on opposition groups following last month’s troubled election that was swept by President Omar al-Bashir’s ruling party.

The government minister, Zahawi Ibrahim Malik, says authorities also raided the printing house of the opposition party’s daily newspaper Rai al-Shaab and confiscated all of its copies.

Al-Bashir faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes in Darfur.