Hasan al-Turabi

Hassan 'Abd Allah al Turabi was a Sudanese Islamist politician who was considered "the true architect" of 1989 coup that brought Omar Al-Bashir to power. He has been called "one of the most influential figures in modern Sudanese politics", and a "longtime hard-line ideological leader". He was instrumental in institutionalizing sharia in the northern part of the country and was frequently imprisoned in Sudan, but these "periods of detention" were "interspersed with periods of high political office".