Sudanese Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi dies at 84

March 5, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The leader of Sudan’s Popular Congress Party (PCP) Hassan al-Turabi has died of a heart attack on Saturday in Khartoum at the age of 84.

Turabi was rushed from his office at the PCP premises in the neighborhood of Al-Manshia to the intensive care unit of Khartoum’s Royal Care hospital after suffering a heart attack in the morning and died there.

In a brief statement Saturday, PCP General Secretariat said that Turabi felt sick at around 11:00 am. (local time) while he was carrying out his daily routine work at the PCP’s headquarters, pointing he was rushed to the ICU at Royal Care hospital.

Turabi was born in 1932 in Kassala, eastern Sudan. He received an Islamic education before coming to Khartoum in 1951 to study law and joined the Muslim Brotherhood as a student.

He graduated from Khartoum University School of Law and also studied in London and at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he gained a doctorate. He became a leader of the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1960s.

Turabi, who is fluent in English, French, is generally considered to be the mastermind of the 1989 coup by Islamist army officers that brought President Bashir to power.

He played a crucial role in designing the new government’s Islamic policies, was elected speaker of the National Assembly in 1996 and in 1998, was elected secretary-general of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

However, in 1999, he was ousted from these positions over differences with President Bashir and his followers. He and his supporters subsequently founded the PCP.

Turabi had been in the opposition ever since. He was also jailed by Bashir’s government on a number of occasions.

(ST)