Sudan released one of the two Christian church leaders the government has arrested and jailed since December without charges.
It was unclear why Telahoon Nogose Kassa was released, but under its mandate the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) cannot keep people in its custody for over four and a half months.
"Finally Kassa is released, thanks for your prayers and hope that others follow," Kassa's brother wrote on his Facebook page.
The 36-year-old head of the Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church was asked to report to the NISS headquarters on December 13, and since then he has not able to return home. Witnesses said he was brought and detained in Khartoum.
Except for the suspicion of his mingling with a foreign missionary, NISS gave no other legal reason for his detention leading thoughts it was a religious oppression.
Kassa had fought hard against a government takeover of his church property, and his arrest came after NISS released two other South Sudanese pastors Rev. Peter Yein Reith and Rev. Yat Michael.
Rev. Hassan Abdelrahim Tawor, the vice-moderator of the Sudanese Church of Christ (SCOC), was fetched from his house five days after Kassa's arrest. NISS until now refused to release him.
Sudan is a subjected to the United Nation's Universal Periodic Review on human rights abuses and ranked eighth in Christian support organization's Open Doors' 2016 World Watch List of countries where Christians face persecution.
Many SCOC and other church members are from the Nuba mountains in South Kordofan where the government is fighting an insurgency. The people in the area where President Omar al-Bashir has vowed to recognize only Islamic culture have complained discrimination.
Because of its treatment of Christians and for unceasing human rights violation, Sudan remains a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S and in the list of countries with cases of religious freedom violations.
