CAIRO - Egypt's top generals led hundreds of mourners Saturday at a funeral honoring former spy chief Omar Suleiman, who for decades served as a key pillar of ousted President Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime.
Long a shadowy figure in Egypt, Suleiman continued to play a divisive role in the country even after his death Thursday at a U.S. hospital at age 76. The country's armed forces opted to honor him with a military funeral despite fierce condemnation from activists and Islamists for whom Suleiman, a former general, was a figure stained by his role in the suppression of opposition groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood.
An honor guard carried the former spy chief's coffin, draped in Egypt's red, white and black flag, before placing him at rest in a military cemetery in Cairo Saturday.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads Egypt's powerful military council, led the armed forces' delegation at the ceremony. President Mohammed Morsi, who is from the Brotherhood and was sworn as Egypt's new leader late last month, sent a representative from his office.
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Also in attendance was a delegation from the Palestinian Fatah movement, led by Azzam al-Ahmed, who is Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' point man in talks with the rival Hamas. Suleiman's intelligence agency was a key broker in negotiations between the two factions.
Suleiman died Thursday at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, where he had been treated since Monday. The clinic said in a statement that Suleiman died from "complications from amyloidosis, a disease affecting the heart, kidneys and other organs."
That, however, failed to prevent conspiracy theories from swirling in Cairo.
The front page of Egypt's independent Dostor daily ran the headline "Omar Suleiman was killed," while one mourner at Saturday's funeral carried a poster asking, "Who killed Omar Suleiman?"
The rumors surrounding his death are a reflection of the mystery that surrounded the man known in Egypt as "the black box" while he was alive.
Tall, thin and often shown in sunglasses, Suleiman was Egypt's point man in cooperation with the United States in the post 9/11 rendition program in which terror suspects snatched by the Americans were shipped to Egypt and other countries for interrogation, sometimes involving torture.
He was considered Mubarak's closest lieutenant, a key pillar of his authoritarian regime and holder of many secrets. He handled the regime's most sensitive issues like relations with the U.S. and Israel, and the fierce battle against Islamists.
He was appointed Mubarak's vice president during last year's uprising in an attempt to quell the protests demanding the downfall of the regime. In the end, it was Suleiman who appeared on state TV on Feb. 11, 2011, to announce Mubarak's resignation and the military's seizure of power.
Suleiman largely vanished from sight after that but re-emerged in April in a surprise and short-lived attempt to join the race for president. He said he was running to prevent the Brotherhood from coming to power, warning that it would turn Egypt into a religious state.
He was disqualified on technical grounds along with two Islamist candidates, including the Brotherhood's initial contender.
Skeptics believe Suleiman's last-minute entry and quick exit from the race were meant to soften public opinion about the Islamists' disqualification.
Suleiman also testified in the trial of Mubarak, who was later sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the killing of protesters during the uprising. In his testimony, Suleiman denied Mubarak issued orders to shoot at protesters but said the president did learn about the killings when he ordered the formation of an investigative committee.
Mubarak supporters blame that testimony for bringing the conviction.
