Sudan strongman Turabi arrested

President Bashir and Dr Turabi: A bitter rivalry

By Caroline Hawley in Cairo

Security forces in Sudan have arrested the Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi, a day after it was revealed that his party has signed a memorandum of understanding with the southern rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).

Mr Turabi's Popular National Congress Party says he was taken from his home in Khartoum on Wednesday evening.

Mr Turabi has a large Islamist following

Now, he is being held under arrest in a dramatic climax to a bizarre new twist in Sudan's complex web of political alliances.

No charges have yet been made public, but the government is expected to make an announcement shortly.

For a decade after President Omar al-Bashir came to power in a military coup, Hassan al-Turabi was seen as the main ideologue behind his Islamist government.

New twist

It is understood he has been asked to explain why his party signed an agreement with the SPLA to work together to try to force President Bashir to hand over power.

The understanding, reached in Switzerland earlier this week, took many by surprise.

Mr Turabi had been regarded as a symbol of Sudan's Islamist policies which have been a key factor in the country's long-running civil war.

Democracy activist

Mr Turabi fell out with President Bashir in 1999 and has since sought to present himself as a democracy activist.

The document his party signed with the SPLA calls for democracy, a just peace and a federal government.

But given Mr Turabi's past, one Sudanese observer said it was extraordinary that he and the southern rebels should agree on anything at all.