Retrial for 27 suspects in Sudan

The constitutional court in Sudan issued a judgment of retrying 27 suspects accused of participating in carrying out a series of explosions in the capital, Khartoum, last year.

The former trial was canceled after the defense argued that the supreme field military court before which the suspects were tried was not authorized to conduct such trials.

The Sudanese government said the opposition group planned for a series of attacks on strategic establishments in and around the capital, and the authorities in Khartoum insist that they have evidence of the conspiring of the parties participting in the Democratic National Alliance, which is a coalition of opposition factions.

The head of the Ummah Party, El-Sadek El-Mahdi, was accused of being responsible for these explosions, which took place in June 1998, according to government statements that the attacks were a criminal conspiracy.