Dr Hassan Abdullah el Turabi

That is what Khartoum did to Hassan Abdullah el Turabi in 1999-2000 when it faced heavy foreign pressure...

' One architect of this securocracy veteran NIF leader Hassan Abdullah el Turabi was arrested in a dawn raid on 12 May ostensibly for sponsoring the JEM attack and held for a day...

When the NIF turned into the National Congress and (Hassan el Turabi's) Popular National Congress in 2000 Khalil went to the Netherlands to specialise in community medicine while trying to coordinate with ex-NIF colleagues in the Darfur opposition...

The man who preceded (and shadowed) Lam Akol Ajawin as Foreign Affairs Minister is a regime stalwart: he was founding Deputy Secretary General of Hassan Abdullah el Turabi's 'Islamist International' the Popular Arab Islamic Conference (PAIC) in 1990 now seen as the cradle of Al Qaida (AC Vol 42 No 4)...

Up to a point this has worked well for Beijing: President Omer and the NC are still in power having sidelined key Islamist leader Hassan el Turabi in 1999 but Omer has not proved a pliant leader...

JEM: largely Zaghawa and/or Islamist seen as close to NIF ex-leader Hassan Abdullah el Turabi; JEM operates in north-east Chadian-Sudanese border area; close to some Chadian Zaghawa; recently some military action in West and South Darfur...

Smile' was founding Secretary General of Hassan el Turabi's Popular Arab Islamic Conference (PAIC) the Khartoum precursor of Al Qaida...

Khalil a lawyer and former NIF minister is widely seen as close to its Islamist founding guru Hassan el Turabi...

This would have been inconceivable in the 1990s when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused the NIF (and specifically Hassan Abdullah el Turabi) of the assassination attempt on him in Addis Ababa in 1995 or when President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir described Saudi Arabian King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz al Saud as unfit to be Guardian of the Two Holy Places (Mecca and Medina)...

The veteran Islamist fell out with NIF guru Hassan el Turabi and his sons in 2000 publicly accusing the family of trying to kill him...