Sudan frees U.S. resident after Washington demands release

The United States had demanded the release of Radwan Daoud who was re-arrested by security agents on Monday, the same day a judge found him not guilty of the most serious charges against him, which included forming a terrorist organisation.

Agents had initially arrested Daoud, whose origins are in the western Darfur region, last month in a house in Khartoum where authorities said they had found material calling for protests and regime change.

"He was freed last night," his lawyer Abdelmoneim Adel Mohamed told Reuters.

Daoud has legal permanent resident status in the United States.

Sudan was not hit by the Arab Spring uprisings that unseated rulers in neighbouring Libya and Egypt last year, but austerity measures taken to cope with an economic crisis have led to small demonstrations calling for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to resign.

Sudanese activists say more than 1,000 people have been detained for taking part in such protests, though the number cannot be verified independently.

(Reporting by Khalid abdelaziz; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Alison Williams)