Investigator alleges Darfur rebels participated in failed coup plot
KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan 8, 2005 (AP) — One of Darfur’s main rebel groups was behind a foiled plot last year to overthrow Sudan’s government, a top investigator alleged during a trial of more than 70 defendants Saturday.
The defendants, members of the Popular Congress party led by opposition leader Hassan Turabi, also allegedly received satellite phones and $212,000 in cash from the United States and the United Arab Emirates to buy weapons, according to chief prosecutor Brig. Abdel Rahim Ahmed.
Sudanese authorities have charged the suspects with plotting to arrange a coup, recruiting tribesmen to aid the plot and planning to occupy strategic utilities, including main bridges in Khartoum and the state-run radio station.
Sixty-one of the detainees have pleaded not guilty, while 13 have not entered pleas during the court proceedings, which are being held under tight security in a Khartoum court house.
Ahmed acknowledged for the first time that a separate defendant detained during police raids in March and October had died in custody.
The investigator provided no details on the circumstances surrounding the death of Abdel Rahman Suleiman Moheib, who was alleged to have been in charge of organizing the purchase and shipment of weapons.
The government has not responded to claims by Turabi’s party that two defendants were tortured to death in custody.
A military court is also trying 21 Sudanese army personnel, including six officers, in relation to the alleged plot to overthrow President Omar el-Bashir’s government.
Ahmed alleged that the Justice and Equality Movement, one of the two main rebel groups fighting government forces in the western Darfur region since February 2003, was the military wing of Turabi’s party.
Some of the suspects, Ahmed alleged, had confessed to the link, which el-Bashir’s government has long held.
Turabi, who is under house arrest but has not been charged, was the Islamic ideologue who helped el-Bashir engineer his own 1989 coup to topple Sudan ‘s last democratically elected prime minister, Sadiq el-Mahdi, but later fell out of favor with the president who believed his former aide was trying to make a grab for power.
Ahmed alleged some of the suspects had tried to recruit tribesmen from both Darfur and southern Sudan , scenes of two wars, plus eastern tribes to participate in the coup bid. A peace treaty to end the 21-year southern Sudan civil war will be signed in Kenya on Sunday.
He also displayed a sample of the confiscated weapons, including 816 Kalashnikovs, 18 rocket-propelled grenades and 643 military uniforms.
The case resumes Sunday.