Hassan al-Turabi

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Hassan al-Turabi File:Hassan al-Turabi.jpg Full Name: Hassan 'Abd Allah al-Turabi Origin: Kassala, Sudan Occupation: Politician Leader of the National Islamic Front Skills: Immense political power and influence Theological knowledge Oratory Persuasion Goals: Take over Sudan (temporarily succeeded) Eliminate Hosni Mubarak (failed) Crimes: Human rights violations State terrorism War crimes Ethnic cleansing Slavery Torture Type of Villain: Islamist Dictator

Hassan 'Abd Allah Al-Turabi (1 February 1932 - 5 March 2016) was a Sudanese Islamist politician and leader of the National Islamic Front from 1964 - 1999. Widely believed to have been the architect of the coup that brought Omar al-Bashir to power in 1989, Al-Turabi was instrumental in introducing sharia law to Sudan and has been described as "one of the most influential figures in Sudanese politics". Al-Turabi and the NIF de facto lead Sudan until their power began to decline in 1996, and oversaw the implementation of highly controversial policies such as the creation of the "NIF police state" and were responsible for many human rights violations during their time in power.

Biography

Al-Turabi was born in Kassala in 1932. He was heavily involved in Islamist political movements and joined the Islamic Charter Front (ICF) in 1964. Al-Turabi's ICF exerted a heavy influence over politics until 1985, when it was banned and Al-Turabi was briefly imprisoned. Upon release he re-formed the ICF as the National Islamic Front (NIF).

In 1989 Omar al-Bashir took over Sudan in a military coup. While it is widely believed in Sudan that the Al-Turabi-lead NIF were involved in the coup, they were in fact banned and forcibly dissolved during al-Bashir's subsequent purges and Al-Turabi was placed under house arrest; however, he was released after several months and the NIF was re-formed and given a place in government, with Al-Turabi in the Sudanese cabinet.

With Al-Turabi in power, the NIF rolled back more moderate religious laws and imposed a Sharia state, introducing a religious police who ensured that all women in public wore face veils. Under the NIF, a campaign of purges and executions was held against the secular middle class, with opponents of the regime being killed, exiled, imprisoned or sent to “re-education camps”. Detainees were regularly tortured; a report by Gáspár Bíró, United Nations envoy to Sudan, stated that:

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Once uncommon in the Sudan, torture was now widespread, especially in the south. Non-Muslim women were raped, their children taken from them; paper bags filled with chili powder were placed over men's heads, and some were tied to anthills; testicles were crushed and burned by cigarettes and electric current.

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Slavery was re-introduced, and harsh Islamic laws were passed; for example, women could face execution for adultery even in cases of rape. Human Rights Watch reported that the NIF were responsible for numerous human rights abuses, including "summary executions, torture, ill treatment, arbitrary detentions, denial of freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and violations of the rules of war, particularly in the south".

Al-Turabi convinced al-Bashir to intensify the war against South Sudan and declare it a jihad. This gave the NIF an excuse to overhaul the Sudanese education system to teach children how to become child soldiers, having them wear combat fatigues and learn paramilitary combat techniques. Islamist propaganda was broadcast on state-controlled media, teaching about the heavenly reward of those who die in jihad. Numerous war crimes were committed against civilians in the south during the war, up to and including a campaign of ethnic cleansing against black Africans opposed to the NIF by the Janjaweed militia. Al-Turabi and the NIF were fully aware of the ethnic massacres and did nothing to stop them, even supplying the Janjaweed with weapons. This would ultimately lead to the Darfur Genocide several years after Al-Turabi’s fall from power (an event which Al-Turabi always claimed to oppose).

Al-Turabi’s NIF government allowed many Islamic terrorist groups to operate freely in Sudan, including Al-Qaeda, Abu Nidal Organization and Hezbollah. They also granted asylum to hitman and terrorist Carlos the Jackal in return for his conversion to Islam (although Al-Turabi allowed French intelligence services to apprehend him in 1994). The presence and free operation of Islamist militants in Sudan lead to the Sudanese government being classed as a sponsor of terrorism; in 1993 the United States of America officially named Al-Turabi and the NIF as being behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and a plot to bomb the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Two years later in 1995 an attempt was made by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad group to assassinate Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The Sudanese government was implicated by Egyptian and Ethiopian government reports. They denied the charges, but Al-Turabi praised the attempt because Mubarak had launched a crackdown on radical Islamism. The EIJ were allowed to remain in Sudan, but were expelled the following year for executing two teenagers within Sudanese jurisdiction.

Al-Turabi began to lose power in 1999 following a falling-out with President al-Bashir, culminating in Al-Turabi being imprisoned on charges of conspiring with militants in Darfur. He was released in 2003, before being arrested again on the same charges in 2004. He was released in 2005. He was arrested yet again for conspiracy in 2008 but released without charge. He was arrested once again on 14 January 2009 after calling for al-Bashir to surrender to the International Criminal Court, but was released on 8 March when an ICC indictment was filed against al-Bashir. He was arrested for the final time on 18 January 2011 after publicly criticizing al-Bashir’s government, and was released once again.

Al-Turabi died from a heart attack on 5 March 2016.