African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(9 March, 2023) African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) would like to extend its gratitude to the human rights monitors who were at the front-line during 28 February 2023 anti- coup rally in Khartoum. The monitors documented several human rights violations that occurred during the rally. They captured several videos among which, a video of the shooting of a 14-year-old Ibrahim Majzoob Ibrahim by a security officer and pictures of security officers violating protestors. The 54 seconds video was watched by several people including Sudanese authorities. The authorities reacted by handing over the officer seen in the video clip to the office of the Attorney General for prosecution. The Sudanese police issued a statement confirming the same. However, this action alone cannot bring an end to police brutality during protests. Additionally, previous videos show the police forces getting orders to use force against the anti- coup protestors.
In another statement issued by Mr. Eltahir, the Chief prosecutor, he stated that his office immediately proceeded to the scene of crime when they got to know about the incident. Mr. Eltahir also confirmed that the police handed the officer over to their office. The actions by the police during rallies further confirms the neglect of duty by the office of the Attorney General by omitting to supervise the use of force police forces as provided for under the Sudanese criminal law.
Another development
The Khartoum Criminal Court dismissed the charge and released eight resistance committee members accused of killing of Sergeant Mergani Aljili, a Sudanese Armed Force soldier who was killed on 13 March 2022 during an anti -coup rally. The case was dismissed because the prosecution did not present adequate evidence against the accused. The accused persons also started that they were tortured while in detention.
We call upon the Sudanese authorities to conduct an impartial and independent investigation into the allegations of neglect of duty by the acting Attorney General and the Director of police in regulating the amount of force used during protests and rallies. We further call upon the office the Attorney General to ensure that all cases are thoroughly investigated and gathered sufficient evidence before proceeding to court. The Director of Police should issue orders directing the police to refrain from using ammunitions during protests and ensure that Sudanese citizens enjoy their freedom of expression, assembly, and association.
ACJPS further calls upon Sudanese authorities to urgently conduct an independent investigation into the torture allegations of the accused persons by Federal Police.
Names of the accused who were released by court
- Hamza Salih (m)
- Hussam Alsiad (m)
- Sharaf Abu Almajd (m)
- Michael Deng (m)
- Musab Ahmed Mohamed (m)
- Suar Aldhab Abu Alazirm (m)
- Khalid Mamoun (m)
- Gasim Haseeb (m)
