Sudanese youth activist detained incommunicado and at risk of torture

(28 March 2013) The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) is concerned for the safety of youth activist Hatim Ali Abdalla, (m), 24 years of age, who has been detained without access to his family or lawyers by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) since 24 March. Hatim Ali’s detention is thought to be connected to his participation in a peaceful demonstration at Khartoum Bahri hospital on 23 March. The demonstration, attended by roughly 50 people, was organised by several doctors’ unions to protest a recent decree issued by the Khartoum Minister of Health ordering the closure of several public hospitals.

Hatim Ali was arrested by police from the demonstration at Khartoum Bahri Hospital at 1pm on 23 March and taken to Khartoum Bahri police station. He was released at around 12.30am in the early hours of the following day, 24 March, and ordered to report to the Political Section of the NISS offices in Khartoum Bahri at 8.30am the same day. Hatim Ali reported to the NISS as instructed on 24 March and has been detained incommunicado ever since. When his family requested to visit him, they were reportedly told by the NISS to return in fourteen days. The nature of criminal charges against him, if any, and his exact whereabouts are not known.

Hatim Ali has reportedly been arrested more than two times, but released without charge, in the last year.

The spokesperson for the Sudanese youth movement Sudan Change Now, Khalid Omer Yousif, (m), was also summoned, on 23 March, to the Political Section of the NISS offices in Khartoum Bahri and interrogated about his role in the demonstrations. He was released at midnight the same day and ordered to report back to the NISS offices on the morning of 24 March, where he waited until 5pm without being interviewed. He was subsequently ordered to report back to the NISS office on the mornings of 25 and 26 March, after which he was told that the investigation against him had concluded and he was no longer required to report to the NISS.

ACJPS condemns the harassment of peaceful activists and urges the Government of Sudan to:

• Immediately grant Hatim Ali access to his family and lawyers.
• Guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Hatim Ali and order his immediate release in the absence of valid legal charges that are consistent with international law and standards, or if such charges exist, to bring him before an impartial, independent, and competent tribunal and guarantee his procedural rights at all times.
• Cease the harassment and intimidation of peaceful activists and political opponents and guarantee the right to freedom of expression, association, and assembly as recognised by the Interim National Constitution (2005) and Sudan’s commitments under international law.

Background

This case underscores the rapidly deteriorating space for freedom of expression, association and assembly in Sudan. The Government of Sudan has taken extreme measures to restrict freedom of expression and association in response to mass demonstrations which took place throughout Sudan in June – August 2012 calling for regime change. ACJPS documented over 350 arbitrary arrests of social activists and the widespread use of torture and incommunicado detention by the NISS within a six week period between June and July 2012. Although the nationwide demonstrations dissipated quickly due to the harsh response of the authorities, several smaller scale demonstrations held at Sudan’s universities on less controversial issues, such as tuition fees, have been met with excessive use of force by the police and NISS. In one serious case documented by ACJPS in December 2012, four students were found dead in an irrigation channel (tura) on the campus of Al Jazeera University, Al Jazeera State, following joint armed action by the Central Reserve Police and NISS to break up a meeting of students from Darfur. The students had been protesting the failure of the university to apply a 2006 Presidential decree waiving their university fees.

Contact: Osman Hummaida, Executive Director, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS).

Phone: +44 7956 095738 (UK).

E-mail: osman@acjps.org.