To protest against "ill-treatment", dozens of detainees are on hunger strike in Sudan

Khartoum

- Since last Monday, at least 100 detainees in one of the main prisons in the Sudanese capital began a hunger strike to protest against ill-treatment and the prevention of their relatives from visiting them, as well as the failure to investigate them to find out what charges they face.

While politicians face charges related to breach of trust, jurists are seeking to refute these charges and confirm that the arrest is political and not based on legal facts.

Last Tuesday, the defense team for "those affected by unlawful detention and the martyrs of arbitrary killing" submitted a memorandum to the Public Prosecutor calling on him to release the hunger strikers and unlawfully detained prisoners;

In addition to a previous memorandum filed on January 31 last year, calling for a review of the case of 46 detainees at the time, detained in several prisons in Khartoum without charges, after their arrest from the neighborhoods and during the processions organized by the resistance committees to demand civilian rule.

Arrest without charges

Member of the Defense Committee, Nafisa Al-Nour Hajar, told Al-Jazeera Net that the number of detainees currently reached about 110, including university students in final classes who are threatened with losing the school year by holding exams in their absence, and among the detainees are a number of children.

It asserts that more than 100 detainees in "Soba" prison (east of Khartoum) have entered a hunger strike since Monday, and that they have been held for weeks without reports, charges or investigations, and deprived of all legitimate rights.

According to the lawyer, the detainees' defense committee holds the official authorities fully responsible for the consequences of the detainees' health status as a result of their hunger strike, especially since they suffer from chronic diseases.

The memorandum submitted to the Public Prosecutor, a copy of which was obtained by Al Jazeera Net, called for interfering with the visit of detainees in Soba prison and Dar Al Tabitat to determine their conditions and their immediate release, after the lawyers who signed it accused the Public Prosecutor of abandoning his responsibilities and powers stipulated in the law, which led to The security apparatus and other executive agencies persisted in the practice of illegal and arbitrary arrests, according to the memorandum.

Medical concern about the conditions of the strikers

The statement of the Unified Office of Doctors of Sudan stated yesterday, Wednesday, that the detainees in Soba prison are still on hunger strike “to protest against the ill-treatment and the prevention of visits from them.” .

The statement pointed out the lack of adequate medical care for the detainees, and the failure to transfer patients to the hospital in the event of a health emergency.

The doctors held the authorities responsible for any harm that affects the prisoners as a result of medical negligence or as a result of the consequences of the hunger strike, which they resorted to as a means of protest and peaceful resistance against what the statement called "repression and arbitrary detention."

political arrest

Among the detainees on hunger strike are members of the Empowerment Removal Committee, which was concerned with dismantling the political and economic facades of the regime of ousted President Omar al-Bashir before the President of the Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan decided to freeze its work, and then reports were opened against about 5 of its leaders under Article 177 related to breach of trust. .

A member of the defense committee for the detainees in this communication, Iqbal Ali, asserts, in her speech to Al Jazeera Net, that the arrest of the leaders of the Empowerment Removal Committee is “political in the first place,” even if it is hidden in Article 177, and cites that the detention pending the same communication should be in police custody. It is allowed to meet them as usual.

Iqbal revealed that a number of others were detained under the same article, after which 5 leaders of the Empowerment Committee were arrested, who were in executive positions, adding, "The citizens arrested in this report are in the Khartoum Police Department in the north, while the leaders of the Executive Committee were deported to Soba prison with deprivation of The most basic legal rights, which confirms that they are politically imprisoned."

According to the law, charges that carry a penalty of more than 10 years may not be released on ordinary bond, but jurists say that custom in Sudan has opened the door to release on bond if the accusation is breach of trust, given that it may take a long time to prove it.

No guarantee without deposit

Adviser to the President of the Sovereign Council, Brigadier General Taher Abu Haga, had said, in a statement on the tenth of February, that the arrest of the leaders of the frozen dismantling committee was based on arrest warrants that required payment of the amounts in question to release them on bail, and Abu Haga rejected attempts to show the arrest as a “political arrest.” ", while the move was made pursuant to a notification.

"There is a big difference in the two words, because the arrest warrant is issued by the security services, and the arrest warrant is issued by the judicial authorities, whether it is the prosecution or the judiciary," he said.

And the former Minister of the Presidency of Ministers Affairs Khaled Omar Youssef and the rapporteur of the Empowerment Dismantling Committee were arrested by virtue of his position, and the spokesperson and rapporteur of the committee, Wajdi Saleh, and its Secretary-General, Al-Tayeb Othman, were arrested two days ago, the former member of the Sovereign Council. Vice Chairman of the Committee, Mohamed Al-Faki Suleiman.

Request to cancel the communication

In this communication, Kamal Al-Din Al-Misbah, a member of the Defense of the Detainees, confirms to Al-Jazeera Net that they were not able, until the day before yesterday, Tuesday, to meet their clients, on the pretext of the authorities that the investigation had not been completed, and said that they had prepared a request to write off the communication based on the fact that the detainees belong to sovereign bodies and are not public officials, and from Then they must be excluded from dealing under the Civil Service Act.

He clarifies that Minister Khaled Omar - for example - is subject to the supervision of the Council of Ministers, and when any other party intervenes in a procedure, it is considered a violation of the law and is not concerned with this communication.

On February 14, the Public Prosecution renewed the detention of Wajdi and Khaled Omar for 15 days pending investigation, and their case later turned into a criminal case for violating special laws related to dealing in foreign exchange, violating financial and accounting procedures, violating the law against unlawful and suspicious wealth, and so on.

The Public Prosecutor, Maher Saeed, stated that the Public Prosecution is investigating the aforementioned communications, with the suspects enjoying all the rights stipulated in the law.