Sudan’s ex-VP was behind assassination attempt on Egypt president: Turabi

July 3, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The late Secretary General of the National Islamic Front (NIF) in Sudan Hassan al-Turabi has revealed in a recorded interview from 2010 the involvement of his deputy and former Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha in the assassination attempt against former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia in 1995.

In episode 12 of a series of testimonies broadcasted by the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera TV on Sunday, the late Islamist leader said that Taha told him on the same day of the failed attempt about his personal involvement in the assassination plot alongside the General Security Services which was then headed by Nafie Ali Nafie.

Al-Turabi pointed that neither him nor the Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir were aware of the assassination plot, saying the operation was arranged by Taha and Nafie.

He added that a meeting was held following the failed attempt in the presence of himself, Bashir, Nafie, Taha and others to assess the situation, saying that Taha proposed during the meeting to kill two Egyptian Jihadists who returned to Sudan after they participated in the assassination plot against President Mubarak.

However, the late Islamist leader said he had strongly objected to Taha’s suggestion, underscoring that the meeting had eventually abandoned the idea of killing the two Egyptian Jihadists.

Al-Turabi also disclosed that the funding of the assassination attempt which amounted to more than $1 million was provided by Taha who secretly took the money from the NIF.

He further said that Islamist leaders from a country which he declined to name but said it is not far from Egypt came to him before the failed plot and asked him to facilitate an operation to assassinate Mubarak.

“Our president would travel to Addis Ababa to participate in the African Summit and we want to kill him” the Islamist leaders told al-Turabi.

Al-Turabi said however he rejected the proposal of the Egyptian Islamists and convinced them to abandon the idea.

“I told them that even if you managed [to assassinate Mubarak] would you get over your personal hatred toward him? … If you succeeded [to kill him] then hundreds of your [followers] would be killed and the mosques in your country would be shut down,” said al-Turabi.

The late Islamist leader added that he told President Bashir and Taha about the Egyptian Islamists who asked him to facilitate Mubarak’s assassination and that he “warded them off and convinced them that killings are useless”.

Al-Turabi further pointed that Taha was not driven by personal motives but sought to help Egyptian Islamists who belong to a group that has nothing to do with Muslim Brotherhood.

It is noteworthy that investigations have revealed the involvement of elements from the Egyptian Jemaah Islamiah including Mustafa Hamza the head of the group’s Shura (consultative) Council in the assassination attempt.

Al-Turabi’s testimony is expected to provoke controversy in Sudan as it was the first time to openly implicate Taha and Nafie in the assassination plot against President Mubarak.

Ethiopia and Egypt have accused the Sudanese government of helping to plan the attack by Egyptian extremists on Mubarak’s bulletproof car as he was on his way to an African Summit in June 1995 summit in Addis Ababa.

However, Sudan has always denied a role in the attempt.

Responding to a motion at the UN Security Council in 1996 calling on Sudan to hand over Ethiopia three men suspected in the attack, Taha, who was then Sudan’s Foreign Minister said that Sudan was “neither a party to, nor had a role” in the attempt.

Al-Turabi, who passed away last March, was one of the most influential figures in modern Sudanese politics and a longtime hard-line ideological leader. He was the leader of the NIF which orchestrated the 1989 military coup d’état that brought President Bashir to power.

Taha served as Turabi’s deputy in the NIF and was one of his loyal disciples until 1999 when a split occurred between President Bashir and Turabi. Taha joined Bashir’s camp and became First Vice President until he was chased out of office in 2013.

Since then, Taha has not held any government post but he retains his position in the leadership council of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP).

When he recorded his testimonies in 2010, Turabi had stipulated that it would only be aired after his death.

During the first years of the regime, the country was ruled by the NIF, as Taha was tasked with the management of the government affairs.

(ST)