Alleged plot leader has fled Sudan, says party official

CAIRO, Oct 11 (AFP) — The alleged ringleader of an anti-government plot has fled Sudan, a senior official from his Popular Congress (PC) party said on Monday, after the authorities had spent weeks searching Khartoum for him.

“Doctor Hajj Adam Yusef, a member of the party’s political bureau who has been hunted since March by the Sudanese government, managed to leave the country recently,” the Islamist party’s number two, Ali al-Hajj, told AFP by phone from Germany.

He refused to reveal the exact date of the escape or where Hajj Adam Yusef is now.

“The party decided to pull him out because the authorities were relentlessly rounding up people and cracking down on members of our party,” said Ali al-Hajj, the deputy of 74-year-old PC leader Hassan al-Turabi.

A one-time mentor of Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir, Turabi was arrested in March on charges of undermining the regime and inciting sedition in the troubled Darfur region following government allegations of a coup attempt.

Hajj Adam Yusef is wanted by the government in connection with the alleged plot and Sudanese security services have been conducting intense searches in Khartoum for him and other wanted PC members.

On September 24, Khartoum said it had foiled another plot to kill senior government officials and bomb key institutions in the capital, They blamed that alleged plot on Turabi supporters.

Dozens of Sudanese Islamists have been jailed or tried in recent months.