A Sudanese media report indicates that the Sudanese President has denied requests by Global Muslim Brotherhood leaders to release former Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood leader Hassan Turabi from prison. According to the report:
The secretary-general of the [opposition]Popular Congress Party [PCP], Dr Hasan Al-Turabi, from his prison in Kobar Jail sought excuses for the chairman of the [Palestinian] Political Bureau of Hamas, Khalid Mish’al, who visited Sudan last week without visiting the family of Dr Al-Turabi or meeting his party’s leadership. An informed told Al-Ahram Al-Yawm that Al-Turabi had said that the leaders of Hamas are faced with complicated political circumstances when visiting Khartoum and that he appreciated that they did not visit his family in Al-Manshiyah neighbourhood as did the leader of the Tunisian Islamic Movement, Rached Ghannouchi, who inquired about the Darfur crisis and the relationship between the PCP and the [Darfur rebel] Justice and Equality Movement during his meeting with the PCP deputy secretary-general, Abdullah Hasan Ahmad and Ibrahim Al-Sanusi in the party’s headquarters and Al-Turabi’s home in Al-Manshiyah neighbourhood as well as with Yasin Umar Al-Imam at Al-Thawrah in Omdurman on Thursday [10 March]. The head of Islamic and international relations of the PCP, Abubakr Abd-al-Raziq told Al-Ahram Al-Yawm that Al-Ghannouchi submitted a memo to President Al-Bashir requesting the release of Al-Turabi but the president pointed out that it would not be possible to release Al-Turabi in the current political situation after he made his intention clear to topple the government and his influence on the country. [Passage omitted: head of Islamic Scholars General Union, Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, did not attend Al-Quds conference because he set a precondition that Al-Turabi be released, details of Al-Ghannouchi’s visit to Al-Turabi’s home]
An earlier post reported that Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader Rachid Ghannouchi had joined Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal and Global Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi in pressing Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir to release Turabi from prison.
Hassan Turabi was involved in the past as a leader in the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood and is probably best known as the man who invited Osama bin Laden to live in Khartoum during the 1990s when Sudan was both a center for terrorist activity and strongly under the influence of Turabi.The BBC has published a profile of Turabi which can be found here.
(Source: BBC Monitoring Middle East “Sudanese president turns down Tunisian Islamist’s request to release Al-Turabi” Excerpt from report by privately-owned Sudanese daily newspaper Al-Ahram al-Yawm on 12 March)