Sudan admits flawed intelligence on sabotage attempt: reports
By Wasil Ali
October 20, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s Security bureau began an internal investigation on the information it received regarding an alleged sabotage attempt thwarted last July, according to a newspaper report.
Sudanese security services arrested Mubarak al-Fadil, leader of the Umma Reform and Renewal opposition party last July over allegations of planning sabotage actions in the country.
The former presidential assistant was arrested along with a number of retired army generals, including retired general Mohamed Ali Hamid, who worked as deputy director of security in the late eighties, as well as former minister of tourism, Abdeljalil al-Basha,.
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat said that Sudan’s military intelligence division officers who were present during the interrogation sessions with the detainees filed a report dismissing the existence of the alleged coup attempt.
The report filed also suggested that Sudan Security bureau may have been misled by informants who are under investigation. Security officials also told Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that a Captain in the Sudanese army believed to be the main source of the information implicating Al-Fadil and others is also under investigation.
Sudan’s announcement of thwarting the coup attempt was received with skepticism due to the vague nature of the plot.
Sudanese officials have been making contradictory statements regarding the sabotage plot.
Originally Sudanese security officials said that the sabotage plot leader Mubarak al-Fadil sought help from a neighboring Arab country and a “major world power”.
The two countries were believed to be Libya and the United States respectively.
But then Sudanese officials denied any foreign involvement and upgraded charges against Al-Fadil to a full blown coup attempt and said that political assassinations was part of the plot.
However security officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity said al-Fadil had sought support from Libya. The officials said Libya had turned him down and informed Sudanese authorities.
Al-Fadil was reported as telling his family that the interrogators said they will release him “for lack of evidence against him”.
Last week the Sudanese authorities renewed the detention of Al-Fadil and the other detainees despite pleas by their lawyers for their release.
The lawyers filed a motion to release the detainees on the grounds that they were not charged with anything for over three months.
One of the lawyers Kamal Al-Juzooli told Sudan Tribune that the Judge by the name of Mu’atasim Tag Al-Sir denied their appeal after the office of the prosecutor presented a document showing that the detainees were charged.
“Even if this was true the detainees were not present when the charges were made. The Sudanese law stipulates that a person must be present when a charge is made. ” Al-Juzooli added.
Al-Juzooli said that it was only natural that judges in a totalitarian regime show “blatant disregard” to the law.
The prominent lawyer slammed the Sudanese authorities for denying the detainees their basic rights.
“The letters from the detainees clearly describe how they were tortured. There is no question about it. According to Sudanese law the burden of proof lies on the prosecutor to prove that this did not take place” he added.
However Al-Juzooli expressed confidence that Al-Fadil and the others would be released saying that authorities are trying to “find a way out after the allegations proved baseless”.
Al-Fadil was appointed as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002 but was sacked after making contacts with the United States without Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir’s consent.
(ST)