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February 19, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Islamist opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi has accused the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of installing secret listening devices at his party’s headquarters, criticizing such precedent as dangerous and warning of brewing discontent within the country’s army.
- Sudan’s opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi during his press conference in Khartoum on 19 January 2012 (ST)
Al-Turabi convened a press conference in the capital Khartoum on Sunday and displayed two listening devices he claimed were found planted at two offices inside the headquarters of his Popular Congress Party’s (PCP) in Al-Riyadh residential area.
According to the opposition figure, one device was planted in the electricity cable wired to the table he sits behind while the other was installed in a downstairs office space where the party’s general secretariat usually holds meetings.
In December last year, the NISS accused Al-Turabi of planning a military coup against the government, saying that his plan was contained in documents caught in the possession of his senior aide Ibrahim Al-Sanousi who was arrested earlier that month .
But Al-Turabi denied the charge at the time and later released the documents which he claimed were “stolen.” The documents seen by Sudan Tribune spoke of possible scenarios to topple the government but clearly stated that a military coup was “somewhat unlikely.”
Al-Turabi said in Sunday’s press conference that he began to suspect espionage after the NISS’s director Mohamed Atta revealed the coup accusations.
He also said he does not exclude the possibility of the involvement of foreign intelligence entities, saying that they are after all wary of the expansion of Islamist movements in the Arab world.
- Al-Turabi displays listening devices he claimed were planted at his party HQ. He was addressing a press conference in Khartoum on 19 January 2012. (ST)
Al-Turabi revealed that his party had decided after careful deliberations to sack the person in charge of guarding his office without informing him of any official charges.
The PCP leader indicated that the person in question was responsible for guarding his office and used to sleep there sometimes.
Al-Turabi said his party had already taken legal steps and informed the police criminal investigation department. However, he added that his party had sensed leniency on the part of the police to investigate the issue, saying that government apparatus including the police were under orders from above and will not find any listening devices if they are told not to find.
The Islamist figure said that the attempted espionage sets a dangerous precedent. “We no longer feel safe anywhere” he declared, adding that he now expects to find similar devices in his house and car.
He went on to criticize the NISS for resorting to espionage. “What is left for them to do? Was it not enough that they have already imprisoned us and closed down our newspaper? We did not expect that they would go as far as invading the privacy of our offices, houses and cars.”
Al-Turabi has been in and out of jail since he was ousted from power in 1990 following a bitter power struggle with president Al-Bashir and fellow Islamists. His party’s mouthpiece, Ra’y al-Sha’b newspaper, was suspended indefinitely last month.
The PCP leader said that his party has no secrets to hide since it already declared its goal of toppling the government through popular uprising. He further warned that what he termed as the upcoming revolt would be strong.
Al-Turabi said that the Sudanese army is growing increasingly unhappy about the war in South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
Sudan’s army and allied paramilitary forces have been fighting indigenous rebel fighters in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan State as of June and in Blue Nile as of September last year.
(ST)
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