Egypt's Mubarak-era spy chief, Omar Suleiman, dies

Hosni Mubarak’s vice president,Omar Suleiman Egypt's former vice president Omar Suleiman, long-time spy chief to deposed president Hosni Mubarak, died on Thursday in the United States aged 77, the official MENA news agency reported. "Former vice president General Omar Suleiman died in the early hours of Thursday in a hospital in the United States," the agency said.
"He was undergoing medical tests in Cleveland," Suleiman's aide Hussein Kamal told AFP, adding that arrangements were being made for the return of his body to Egypt for burial.
Suleiman had suffered from lung disease for several months, after which he developed heart problems, MENA said.
"His health deteriorated suddenly around three weeks ago and he was taken to hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, where he died," MENA said.
Suleiman was appointed vice president during the uprising that toppled Mubarak.
Under pressure from mass protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and around the country, a compromise deal was floated, whereby Suleiman would assume the president's powers for the remainder of Mubarak's term, along with a pledge by the then-president that he would not to run again for the post.
Suleiman's tenure as vice-president lasted for just a few days as Mubarak was deposed shortly after his appointment.
It was Suleiman who, in a short TV address on 11 February 2011, announced that Mubarak had stepped down and handed over his powers to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). He left Egypt after a failed bid to run in the country's first ever free presidential elections in May.
After initially travelling to Dubai, he later headed to Germany and then on to the United States for treatment, General Saad al-Abbassi, a member of Suleiman?s presidential campaign team, told AFP.
"His health deteriorated recently. He was in the United States with his family," said Reem Mamdouh, another member of the team.
Suleiman, a pillar of the ousted regime, announced in April that he would be running for the president after initially saying he would stay out of the race.
He was barred from pursuing the country's top job on a technicality, after the election commission said he failed to get endorsements from 15 provinces as per the law.
Suleiman was widely believed to have formed part of the inner circle of Mubarak, who shortly before his fall named the intelligence supremo as vice president.
Born on July 2, 1935 to a well-off family in the southern town of Qena, Suleiman graduated from Cairo's military academy in 1955.
Suleiman who received military training in the former Soviet Union, at Frunze University, was for years a highly enigmatic figure for the world at large and in Egypt, where the all-powerful military's activities are shrouded in secrecy.
In the 1980s he got a degree in political science from Ain Shams University along with a masters from Cairo University in military science.
He increasingly acquired a public face in recent years, being tipped even before the uprising as a potential successor to Mubarak, himself a former head of the air force.
Under Mubarak, Suleiman served as a negotiating partner for the United States, Israel and the Palestinians, orchestrating a series of short-lived truces.
In 1995, Suleiman advised Mubarak to ride in an armoured car during a visit to Addis Ababa that shielded him from the fire of Islamist gunmen which killed the car's driver.
During the 1990s and following the botched Ethiopian assassination attempt, Suleiman joined the efforts of the CIA and other foreign intelligence agencies to crack down on Islamists, at home and abroad.
On January 22 1993 he was assigned chief of the Egyptian general intelligence service.
As Mubarak's spy chief, he liaised with the Palestinians and mediated the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
He was accused of involvement in torturing prisoners suspected to be from al-Qaeda, when the United States rendered them from Afghanistan to Egypt.
He is survived by his wife and three daughters, Abeer, Dalia, and Rania.
His military funeral will take place Friday in Cairo and will be attended by Field Marshall Tantawi, the head of the quasi-ruling SCAF, according to an unnamed intelligence source.