The General Command of the Sudanese army revealed today that it was thwarted by a coup attempt led by General Hashim Abdulmutallab Ahmed, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a number of military and intelligence officers, leaders of the Islamic Movement and the National Congress Party.
The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mohammed Osman al-Hussein, said in a statement that the security services were able to reveal the details of the coup plan and its participants, headed by the chief of staff and senior officers in the armed forces and the National Security and Intelligence Service.
The statement added that the coup plan also included leaders of the Islamic Movement and the National Congress Party, the party of the isolated President Omar al-Bashir, the participants were detained in the attempt, and are being investigated in preparation for trial.
Arrests
Sources revealed to Al-Jazeera Net that the arrests affected the Secretary-General of the Islamic Movement Zubair Ahmed al-Hassan, former Foreign Minister Ali Karti, and former human resources minister Kamal Abdul Latif.
The sources added that Bakri Hassan Saleh, former Vice President Omar al-Bashir, was arrested and noted that the rapid support forces - led by Vice President of the Military Council Mohammad Hamdan Humaiditi - took over the headquarters of the Operations Department of the Security and Intelligence Service.
The chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff pointed out that the attempted coup was aimed at "aborting the revolution and the return of the former National Congress system to power and blocking the way to a political solution."
The ruling transitional military junta in Sudan signed a political agreement last Wednesday with the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change, detailing how to share power in the transitional institutions that precede the elections.