Sunday, December 13, 2009

Sudan, Hassan al-Turabi (contd-5)




Fall of al-Turabi:
In May-1992, al-Turabi was wounded in an attack by a Sudanese-Canadian at Ottawa International air-port. The international sanctions took effect in April 1996 and were accompanied by a "general withdrawal of the dipllomatic community " from Khartoum. At the same time Sudan worked to appease America and other International critics by expelling members of the Egyptian IslamicJihad and encouraging bin Lade to leave.
In march 1996, national elections were held for the first time since the coup, and Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly where served as speaker of the National Assemblyduring the 1990s. This was his first instance of holding a political position with some consistency.During the last few years of the 1990s , his influence and that of his party's "internationalist and ideological wing " waned in favour of the "nationalist" or more pragmatic leaders who focus on trying to recover from Sudan's disastrous international isolation and economic damage that resulted from ideologial adventurism.
Imprisonment and afterwards ;
After a political falling out with President Omar al-Bashir in 1999, Turabi was impressioned based on allegation of conspiracy before being released in Oct. 2003. He was again impresoned in the Kober (Cooper) prison in Khartoum in March 2004. He was released on June 28, 2005.
In 2004, He was reported to have been associated with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), an Islamist armed rebel group involved in the Darfur Conflict. Turabi Himself has denied these claims.
In 2006, al-Turabi made international headlines when he issued a fatwa allowing Muslim women to marry a non-Muslim men, in contradiction to the accepted Sharia law.
After the JEM attacked Khartoum and Omdurman on May 10,2008, Turabi was arrested on the morning of May12,2008,along with other members of his Popular ongress party (PCP). He said that he had expected the arrest, which occurred when he was returning to Khartoum from a PCP gathering in Sennar. He was questioned and rejeased without charge later in the day, after 12 hours in detention.