Sudan arrests Islamist leader Turabi, wife says

By Nima Elbagir

KHARTOUM, March 31 (Reuters) – Sudan’s security forces arrested opposition Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi on Wednesday, his wife said, three days after Khartoum rounded up military officers and accused them of plotting a coup.

“Security officers surrounded the house, all carrying weapons, and told the guard (of the house) that they wanted the sheikh (Turabi). He came out and they took him away,” Turabi’s wife Wisal al-Mahdi told Reuters.

A high-ranking Sudanese military official said on Monday security forces had arrested 10 military officers on Sunday accused of plotting to overthrow the government. He said they all had links to Turabi’s opposition Popular Congress party.

Prior to his own arrest, Turabi denied any involvement with a coup bid or connection to the officers. But he said several of his party’s political leadership had been detained. Turabi put the number of military officers arrested at 27.

The opposition leader is a former ally of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup.

Turabi, in his early 70s, was previously detained in 2001 after a power struggle with Bashir and was released from house arrest in October.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said he had no knowledge of Turabi’s arrest. On Tuesday, he said security forces arrested several people as part of normal procedure when there is a “threat to state security”.

Turabi’s wife said the security forces had arrived in about five vehicles, including three pick-up trucks, and surrounded their house in the Manshia district of Khartoum.

“He (Turabi) was telling us from yesterday afternoon that he would be taken away on the fabricated excuse of plotting the attempted coup. They just want to legalise their violation of his rights,” she said.

Turabi’s son, Essam, visited him in the early hours of the morning at Kober prison in Khartoum North, where Turabi has been held in the past, she added.

Awad Babiker, Turabi’s secretary, said 10 political officers of the Popular Congress party had been arrested so far. Party officials had said the first arrests were made shortly after the government rounded up the military officers.

The military official said the arrested officers were mostly from west Sudan, where rebels have been fighting the government for more than a year.

Turabi has previously said his party was not involved in any coup attempt, but that he supported the charges of western rebels who say the government has neglected their region.

The government boycotted the opening session of peace talks with western rebels in Chad on Tuesday in protest at the presence of international observers, a source close to the talks said.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Cairo)