KHARTOUM, 1 April 2004 — Security police detained the leading Islamic opposition leader Hassan Turabi early yesterday, three days after members of his party were accused of conspiring to topple the government, his wife said.

Wisal Al-Mahdi told the Associated Press that a large squad of police came to their Khartoum home at about 1:30 a.m. (2330 GMT Tuesday) and arrested her husband, saying he was “wanted by the authorities.”

The arrest followed the government’s detention Sunday of members of Turabi’s Popular National Congress and some military officers in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow President Omar Al-Bashir.

“We were expecting this arrest” because of the alleged coup attempt, Al-Mahdi said.

Al-Mahdi described the detention as “a government setup,” saying the government was using the alleged coup plot as a pretext “to oppress our party.”

In a statement published by state newspapers yesterday, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the police were investigating “security breaches” by an undisclosed number of people.

Ismail did not mention a coup plot nor did he confirm the detainees belonged to the armed forces or the Popular National Congress. He said only “suspicion is surrounding some people, be they individuals or groups.”

Al-Mahdi said two of Turabi’s brothers were allowed to accompany him to Kober prison.

Turabi was once a close ally of Al-Bashir and the main ideologue of the Islamic government that was set up after Al-Bashir seized power in 1989. But the two men fell out in 1999 when Al-Bashir accused Turabi, then the speaker of Parliament, of trying to grab power and stripped him of his position.

Turabi formed the Popular National Congress and became the most prominent Islamist in opposition.

On Monday, the party issued a statement denying any involvement in the alleged coup attempt. The statement said government officials had alleged the plot involved members of the security forces in the western province of Darfur, where local tribes have been in revolt since early 2003.

In November, Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha accused Turabi’s party of “sparing no efforts in fanning the fire of sedition” in Darfur, where the fighting has killed thousands of people and forced more than 110,000 others to flee to neighboring Chad. The party denies it is linked to the Darfur rebellion.