be very far below my level of thinking and my view, and too stupid to understand my pronouncements. Decline of influence International sanctions took effect in April 1996 and were accompanied by a "general withdrawal of the diplomatic community" from Khartoum. At the same time Sudan worked to appease America and other international critics by expelling members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and encouraging bin Laden to leave. In March 1996, national elections were held for the first time since the coup, and al-Turabi was elected to a seat in the National Assembly, where he served as speaker during the 1990s. This was his first instance of holding a political position with some consistency. During the "last few years of the 1990s", his influence and that of his party's "'internationalist' and ideological wing" waned "in favor of the 'nationalist' or more pragmatic leaders who focus on trying to recover from Sudan's disastrous international isolation and economic damage that resulted from ideological adventurism". Imprisonment and later years After a political falling out with President Omar al-Bashir in 1999, Al-Turabi was imprisoned based on allegations of conspiracy before being released in October 2003. Arrested again in 2004 for allegedly being part of a plot to overthrow the government. He was released on 28 June 2005. In 2004 he was reported to have been associated with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), an Islamist armed rebel group involved in the Darfur conflict, whose leader (Khalil Ibrahim) used to be one of Mr Turabi's followers. Al-Turabi himself has denied any association. Turabi spent 16 months in prison from 2004 until 28 June 2005, during which time he spent several weeks on hunger strike. After the JEM attacked Khartoum and Omdurman on 10 May 2008, Al-Turabi was arrested on the morning of 12 May 2008, along with other members of his Popular Congress Party (PCP). He said that he had expected the arrest, which occurred while he was returning to Khartoum from a PCP gathering in Sennar. He was questioned and released without charge later in the day, after about 12 hours in detention. Presidential advisor Mustaf Osman Ismail said that al-Turabi's name had been found on JEM documents, but he denied that al-Turabi had been arrested, asserting that he had merely been "summoned" for questioning. Al-Turabi, however, said that it was an arrest and that he had been held at Kober. According to al-Turabi,