Sudan Islamist party in assassination plot-official
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, April 2 (Reuters) – Military officers linked to a Sudanese Islamist party were plotting to assassinate high-level government figures, a top military official said on Friday.
Opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi’s Popular Congress party was suspended from political activities, after it was loosely linked this week to a number of military officers arrested on suspicions of planning a coup in Africa’s largest country.
The government later said the operation was very limited in its scope and was an attempt to target the oil producer’s Khartoum refinery and power generation plants.
But a high-ranking military official told Reuters on Friday one of those arrested had since revealed a plan to assassinate political figures.
“One of the officers cracked under interrogation and divulged the details of the Popular Congress’s assassination plot… they (the targets) were leading political figures in the government,” the source said on condition of anonymity.
The ruling National Congress party also levelled accusations of a Popular Congress assassination plot in a statement on state television late on Thursday night.
Turabi, a former ally of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was detained this week accused of inciting tribal tensions.
Turabi’s secretary denied the assassination plot charge.
“It is absolutely a fabrication. This is not the first accusation that the government has levelled against us whether it be attempted poisoning or assassination,” Awad Babiker said.
“We are a registered political party and we carry out our work in keeping with constitutional guidelines.”
A western diplomat in Khartoum said he was not surprised by the charges against Turabi’s party given the tensions between him and Bashir.
The opposition leader was previously detained in 2001 after a power struggle with Bashir and was released from house arrest in October last year. Since his release he has openly criticised Bashir’s government.
“I find it completely believable that they were going to target the refinery and the power plant,” the diplomat told Reuters.
“It (the assassination plot) also sounds very tactical and very well thought out and very in keeping of what we have come to expect from Turabi,” he added.
A decree obtained by Reuters from a government source said Turabi’s party had been suspended from political activities until the charges against those arrested was investigated.