African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(29 March 2023) African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls upon Sudanese authorities to cease the harassment and intimidation of Mr. Sakhar Mohamed Abdien Taha, a human rights defender. We further call upon the authorities to carry out an investigation into the arbitrary detention and alleged ill treatment of Mr. Sakhar.
On 24 March 2023, at around 10:00pm, Mr. Sakhar a 19-year-old human rights defender and a resident of East Nile, Khartoum State managed to escape from two security officers who wanted to arrest him. Mr. Sakhar is also a photographer and human rights monitor who specializes in covering violations during anti-coup protests in Sudan. The two security officers dressed in plain uniform stopped a public van that Mr. Sakhar had boarded in Arabic Market in Khartoum. They then introduced themselves as Military intelligence officers and asked Mr. Sakhar to get out. As soon as he got out, Mr. Sakhar ran away from the officers. The officers tried to stop him by shooting in the air, but he managed to flee.
Mr. Sakhar had posted on his Facebook account what had happened to him on 20 March 2023 when he was arrested and detained. On that day, he was arrested by group of eight armed men dressed in plain clothes from Main Street. After he was arrested, they moved with him and after about 3 plots, they stopped and started beating him, verbally threated to kill him and harm of family members and people close to him if he continued covering anti–coup rallies. He was also told not to testify in the case against a Central Reserve Police who shot a 14-year-old protester on 14 March 2023 during an anti-coup rally in Khartoum.
Mr. Sakhar had recorded the 54 seconds video clearly showing the officer targeting and shooting the young protester. The officer was immediately handed over to the office of the prosecutor for further investigation and consequentially prosecution. The video played big role in advocating against police brutality while policing anti-coup rallies and peaceful protests in Sudan.
Mr. Sakhar is well-known human rights monitor who is always in the front lines of the rallies/protests. In January 2023, during a rally in Khartoum, an unidentified officer from the joint forces who was deployed to police the rally called him by name and threatened to kill him.
ACJPS reiterates its call to the Sudanese authorities to respect and guarantee the right to freedom of expression as provided for in article 56 of the Constitutional Declaration of 2019 and international and regional human rights treaties that Sudan is a state party to. ACJPS further urges the Government to ensure that this freedom is protected both online and off-line in accordance with the Declaration and universally accepted standards. The Government should further instruct its law enforcement agencies to cease harassment and intimidation of individuals exercising their rights legitimately.
We also call upon the Sudanese judiciary to come up with measures that ensure the safety and protection of witnesses.
Background
The ongoing harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders by the Sudanese transitional authorities is a clear violation of Sudan’s national, regional and international human rights obligations. Over the years, the Sudanese authorities have used restrictive Criminal and Emergency laws with hefty penalties to target human rights defenders. ACJPS has reported incidents where human rights defenders/activists have been judicially harassed for their online activities. In August 2022, a human rights defender was arrested, tortured and charged with defamation over a social media post in Zalingi city. After the release of the infamous “54 second video” more photographers have been targeted as security officers are on edge. For example on 16 March, 2023 during an anti-coup rally, Mr. Ibrahim Nogdallah and Ahmed were victims of police brutality while covering the protest.
