KHARTOUM, July 13: Jailed Sudanese leader Hassan al-Turabi was bitten by a rat and is in very poor health in terrible conditions in his Khartoum prison, his wife said on Tuesday.

Turabi, a former ally of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was detained at the end of March when authorities accused him of inciting tribal tensions and said his opposition political party had funded rebels in the western Darfur area. "He was bitten by a rat and we are very worried about rabies," Wisal al-Mahdi said.

"The conditions in which he is being kept are appalling." Turabi, 72, has been on an "Islamic hunger strike" feeding on dates and water for almost two weeks, which Mahdi said had made his blood pressure drop because of a lack of salt. She added his family had not been able to visit him for more than 17 days. -Reuters