Omar Suleiman, Mubarak's vice president and former spy chief, dies

Divisive former spy chief who was appointed by Hosni Mubarak as vice president during the uprising last year has died while undergoing medical tests in a US hospital.

Former Egyptian vice president Omar Suleiman is pictured meeting with representatives from political parties in Cairo, in February last year.

CAIRO // Omar Suleiman, the former head of Egypt’s intelligence services who was appointed by Hosni Mubarak as vice president last year in a last-ditch attempt to save his regime, died in the United States yesterday. A full military funeral was being prepared for today.

Suleiman, 76, had been undergoing medical tests in Cleveland, the official Mena news agency reported yesterday, adding that he had suffered from lung disease for several months and had developed heart problems.

During the 18-day uprising last year, he was appointed as Mubarak’s first and only vice-president during his 29-year rule and attempted to hold a “national dialogue” with protesters and opposition leaders to calm the furore against the regime. He ultimately failed and Mubarak was forced to resign on February 11, 2011.

Suleiman rose to become one of Egypt's most powerful, albeit behind-the-scenes, officials in Mubarak's government and presided over the General Intelligence Services' (GIS) clampdown on Islamic extremists over more than two decades. He was also a key player in Egypt's negotiations with the Palestinians and Israel.

Before the uprising that toppled the Mubarak regime, he was most well-known – and reviled by many – for his role in overseeing brutal interrogations and arrests of Islamists that the government saw as the country’s greatest national security threat.

He established an agreement with the CIA in the United States and other nations for Egypt to receive, imprison and interrogate Islamic extremists suspected of terrorism or associations with extremist groups.

One of those prisoners was Mohammed Al Zawahiri, the brother of Al Qaeda chief Ayman. He was sent to Egypt from the UAE in 1999, but disappeared for five of what would eventually become a 13-year imprisonment.

Al Zawahiri was jailed in secret and without official charges, and his family found out he was alive only when the CIA sought a sample of his DNA in 2004 to determine whether a corpse recovered in Afghanistan was that of his brother. His family said he was tortured in prison. He was acquitted of charges and released in March.

“It’s unfortunate that Mr Sulieman will never be subject of a meaningful inquiry into his role as a an architect and key player in the US extraordinary rendition programme, extending as far back as the Clinton administration,” said Ahmed Ghappour, a clinical instructor with the National Security Clinic at University of Texas Law School who has represented detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

In recent years, Suleiman began taking a more public role in the running of Egypt. Observers saw him as a possible presidential candidate – possibly backed by the military – for elections originally scheduled for late 2011.

He was considered a possible contender for the presidential elections this year, but was disqualified from running because of technical violations in his campaign documents.

Born in the southern city of Qena in 1935, Suleiman made his way through the government by way of the military. He was a graduate of Egypt's Military Academy and underwent training in Moscow at the Frunze Military Academy during the regime of President Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was a veteran of the 1967 and 1973 wars with Israel.

In 1986, he was transferred to the Military Intelligence Directorate, where he eventually became the director during the First Gulf War against Iraq in 1991. In 1993, he was named director of the GIS, one of the most sophisticated intelligence agencies in the Arab world.

He played a role in saving the life of Mubarak during an assassination attempt in Ethiopia in 1995. Suleiman had insisted that Mubarak bring his armoured limousine with him on the trip. Attackers from an Islamist group believed to be Egyptian Islamic Jihad opened fire on his motorcade, but targeted the wrong car and Mubarak’s driver made a mad dash for the airport.

Despite his growing influence, Suleiman stayed in the shadows until 2000 when he appeared publicly during the funeral of Syria’s President Hafez Al Assad. Political observers began to increasingly see him as being groomed to possibly take over as president of Egypt. His rise mirrored Mubarak’s son Gamal’s increasing role in politics starting in the early 2000s.

“His greatest mistake was to take a political role, a public role,” said retired General Mohammed Rashad, who was a member of the Egyptian Intelligence Services from 1966 to 1993. “This scarred his legacy. He should have remained a mystery, like any great leader of the intelligence services.”

Suleiman leaves behind his wife and three daughters.

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