Sudan: Arrest and detention of thirteen human rights defenders
Front Line is deeply concerned by a surge in arrests and detention of human rights defenders by security forces in Sudan. Between 13 and 20 June 2007 thirteen human rights defenders and a driver were arrested
Journalists, Alfatih Abdullah, Qazafi Abdulmotalab, Aboubaida Awad, Abulgasim Farahna, Imad Mirghani Sid-Ahmed, Alam Eldin Abdelghani and Abdulla Abdelgayoum were arrested on 13 June in the city of Dongola. At the time of their arrest they were investigating the violence that followed a peaceful demonstration in the Kajbar region.
The demonstration was organised by residents of the Kajbar region and the Committee Against Building the Kajbar Dam, to raise awareness about a government initiative to build a dam in the area, which will result in the forced displacement of the local inhabitants. The police reportedly used live ammunition to disperse the crowd, killing four people and injuring approximately nineteen others. An unknown number of people were arrested.
Supporters of the Committee Against Building, Raafat Hassan Abbas, Dr Mohamed Jalal, Ahmed Hashim and Ahmed Hashim’s driver were arrested on 15 June 2007. The chairperson of the Committee Against Building the Kajbar Dam, Abdelaziz Ali, was also arrested on 13 June 2007. Ahmed Ramram Ahmed, a human rights lawyer, was arrested on 14 June, journalist Saad Mohammed Ahmed was arrested on 16 June and journalist, Mujahid Abdulla was arrested on 20 June 2007.
Three of the thirteen human rights defenders have been released. Ahmed Ramram Ahmed was released on 16 June 2007, Abulgasim Farahna, on 20 June, and Raafat Hassan Abbas, on 23 June.
The human rights defenders currently in detention are being held incommunicado under Article 31 of the 1999 National Security Forces Act, which allows for people to be held for up to nine months without access to a judicial review. No charges have as yet been brought against them and they are at risk of torture or ill-treatment.
Front Line is concerned that the human rights defenders have been targeted as a result of their peaceful activities in the defence of human rights and that their arrest represents an attempt to silence them in their work. Front Line urges the Sudanese authorities to immediately release all those human rights defenders in detention and ensure that their treatment, while in custody, adheres to the “Basic Principles for Treatment of Prisoners” adopted by General Assembly resolution 45/111 of 14 December 1990.