Sudan's PCP chooses new leader to succeed al-Turabi

By Mohamed al-Khatem

KHARTOUM

Sudan's opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) elected Ibrahim al-Sanousi as its new leader on Sunday, one day after the death of longstanding party leader Hassan al-Turabi.

"Al-Sanousi was chosen as interim secretary-general by the party's general-secretariat until the party's shura [consultative] council convenes," PCP member Amin Amana told Anadolu Agency.

No date, he said, had yet been set for the council meeting.

Al-Sanousi, 79, is a leading Islamist leader in Sudan.

He had been a close confidante of al-Turabi, who passed away at a Khartoum hospital on Saturday at the age of 84.

Al-Sanousi has been detained several times in the past by the Sudanese authorities.

In 1967, he was sentenced to death for his role in a failed coup against military ruler Gaafar Nimeiry.

Al-Turabi was one of the world’s most prominent Islamic leaders and one of Sudan’s best known political figures.

He was a main founder of Sudan’s Islamist movement before the country’s independence in 1956.

Turabi was widely believed to have played a key role in the military coup that brought current Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to power in 1989.