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Sudan's Turabi Buried Outside Khartoum


FILE - Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi gives a speech during the general conference of the ruling National Congress Party in Khartoum, Oct. 23, 2014. Prominent politician, 84, died on March. 5, 2016, of a heart attack.
FILE - Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi gives a speech during the general conference of the ruling National Congress Party in Khartoum, Oct. 23, 2014. Prominent politician, 84, died on March. 5, 2016, of a heart attack.

Prominent Sudanese politician Hassan al-Turabi was buried Sunday in a cemetery east of the capital, Khartoum, following a funeral attended by thousands of mourners.

Turabi died Saturday of a heart attack at the age of 84.

He once played a major role in the 1989 coup that brought President Omar al-Bashir to power.

However, the two close allies later became bitter foes, and Turabi became the only Sudanese politician to support a warrant for Bashir's arrest by the International Criminal Court on charges of war crimes.

Turabi also at one time hosted al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, although the group was later expelled from Sudan under U.S. pressure in 1996. Turabi, who supported radical Islam in the 1990s, remade himself as a mainstream politician.

He was jailed several times after a power struggle and split with Bashir in 1999.

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