African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(31 March 2017) Freedom of religion and belief continues to come under fire by the Government of Sudan, despite constitutional guarantees included in the 2005 Interim National Constitution (INC) and the country’s regional and international human rights commitments. Faith communities and their places of worship are often subjected to harassment and intimidation by authorities, including threats of demolition of places of worship, and criminal charges. These attacks often coincide on the basis of essential characteristics, including ethnicity and biological sex.
The realities facing religious minorities in Sudan such as Christians, and individuals with more heterodox views of Islam, fail to reflect legal commitments made by Sudan of equality before the law. This is particularly troubling in a state comprised of tremendous diversity in religious belief and ethnicity.
Order by Khartoum local administration for destruction of churches
In early 2017, an announcement was made by the local Khartoum government administration to demolish at least 27 churches within Khartoum, many of which are located on strategic plots of land, prompting suspicions that their closure is linked to ongoing crackdowns on religious minorities in Sudan but also to facilitate the sale of valuable land to investors. As of late March, the churches are still standing and the order is being challenged in court.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies has also learnt from reliable sources that a second local order ordering the demolition of two additional churches has been issued.
Compounding these ordered demolitions, a local order within Khartoum prohibits the construction of new churches under the rationale that no new churches are needed due to the secession of South Sudan and the presumed exodus of ethnic Southerners, who were predominantly Christian.
Criminal convictions of church leader and activists
Reverend Hassan Abdelrahim Kodi, a church leader originally from South Kordofan, and Abdelmoneim Abdelmula, an activist originally from Darfur, are currently serving twelve year sentences after being convicted on 29 January 2017 under articles 64 (provoking hatred amongst sects), 66 (publication of false news), and 26 (accessory to a crime) of the 1991 Criminal Act.
Convicted also was Czech national Peter Jesc, who was released on 26 February 2017 after receiving a presidential pardon. Mr.Jesc was convicted under articles 53 (espionage), 64 (provoking hatred amongst sects), and 57 (photography of military areas). He was also convicted under article 30 (illegal entry) of the Sudanese Immigration Act, and article 23 (8) (NGO permit regulations) of the 2006 Humanitarian and Voluntary Work Act. He was fined 100,000 Sudanese pounds (approximately $15,479).
The group was originally arrested and detained in December 2015 by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). Their detention is reportedly related to a donation of US $5,000 to Ali Omer Musa, a young Darfuri student and member of the Darfur Students’ Association who was injured in an attack on 12 September 2013 at Al ZaiemAlazhari University.
The government, however, alleged that the donation was given to support Darfuri rebel groups. Although the case nominally revolved around espionage, it was widely viewed as motivated by perceived linkages between religion, ethnicity, and support to Sudan’s armed rebel groups.
A fourth man, Reverend Kuwa Shamaal, was released without charge on 2 January 2017 after the court ruled that there was not enough evidence to charge him. Reverend Shamaal was originally arrested on 18 December 2015 and detained for over a year in Kober Prison.
ACJPS deplores the demolition order issued by the Khartoum local administration, and calls on the central Government to intervene legally by issuing a ruling in favor of the churches, currently pending in a case before a Khartoum court. We perceive the demolitions to be solely an effort to rupture faith communities and places of worship, and believe that the criminal convictions of Reverend Kodi and Abdelmoneim Abdelmula have been levied solely on the basis of their religious convictions, and as such, that their continued detention and criminal proceedings are discriminatory and in violation of constitutional and international law guarantees of equality before the law.
Sudan’s constitution and international human rights commitments guarantee the freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Article 31 of Sudan’s Interim National Constitution of 2005 provides that all persons are “equal before the law and are entitled without discrimination, as to race, colour, sex, language, religious creed, political opinion, or ethnic origin, to the equal protection of the law.” Article 38 further provides that “every person shall have the right to the freedom of religious creed and worship”.
Background
The current climate of the environment for freedom of religion in Sudan demonstrates the internal contractions of Sudanese law and its incompatibility with Sudan’s diverse population and international commitments. International law strictly prohibits discrimination based on religion. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, interpreting Sudan’s obligations under the African Charter, previously found in Amnesty International and Others v. Sudan that Sudan was in breach of its obligations under Article 8 of the Charter owing to legal and other restrictions that inhibit the ability of individuals to freely practice their own religion.
Attacks on churches by authorities have been linked to corruption scandals in the past and criticism of the central Government espoused by church leaders in the midst of ordered demolitions. The Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church has been under siege from authorities since late December 2014. Most recently, in July 2016, 14 church goers and clergymen were arrested for protesting a court order to seize part of the property of the Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church in July 2016.Two South Sudanese pastors, Yad Michael and Peter Yen, were detained by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services on 14 December 2014 and 11 January 2015 respectively, and held incommunicado until their first family visits on 2 March 2015. They were transferred to Kober prison on 1 March after being charged by the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes against the State. They faced criminal charges which carry the death penalty under Sudan’s 1991 Criminal Act after making public remarks criticizing a corruption scandal at the Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church and the treatment of Christians in Sudan.The two men were released in August 2015 with time served after being found guilty of one of the eight criminal charges levelled against them. Their arrests came shortly after a raid on the Church on 2 December 2014 by police forces in six cars. Police forces beat a number of peaceful demonstrators with pipes and water hoses and arrested thirty eight members of the church. After the raid, twenty of the people arrested were sentenced to a fine of 250 Sudanese pounds (roughly $40) each after being convicted without legal representation under articles 65 (criminal and terrorist organisations) and 69 (disturbance of public peace) of the 1991 Criminal Act. The charges were dropped against the remaining eighteen individuals.
In some cases, apostasy charges have been levelled against Christians, such as Meriam Yahia Ibrahim. On 11 May 2014 the Al-Haj Yousef Criminal Court convicted Ms. Ibrahim of adultery after declaring her church marriage invalid on account of her Muslim faith and upbringing, based on the court testimony of a number of her family members. The penalty for adultery under Article 146 of the 1991 Criminal Act is 100 lashes where the offender is not married. She was also convicted of apostasy and sentenced to death on account of converting to Christianity. Article 126 of the 1991 Criminal Act provides for the death penalty for any person found guilty of apostasy, a crime that is committed by any Muslim who advocates for the renunciation of the creed of Islam or publicly renounces his or her faith. The same article provides for the death penalty to be withdrawn if the defendant “repents” and “recants apostasy” before execution. Handing down its decision on 11 May, the Al-Haj Yousef Criminal Court granted a period of three days for Ms. Ibrahim to renounce her Christian faith and return to Islam (referred to as istitabah in Arabic) to avoid the death sentence. Despite having been raised Christian by her mother, the court held that Ms. Ibrahim was considered Muslim because her father was Muslim and that choice to practice Christianity constituted apostasy. She was shackled and forced to give birth to a baby girl on 27 May 2014 while in shackles. Eight UN human rights experts and Special Procedure mandate holders condemned the trial, conviction and sentence and expressed their serious concern. Ms Ibrahim was later released by the Sudanese government and was briefly stopped at Khartoum airport whilst attempting to flee the country for not having the appropriate identification documents.
Hudud sentencing’s threat of death for the crime of apostasy paradoxically contradicts with Sudan’s constitutional provisions regarding the right to choose and practice one’s own religious beliefs.
Charges of apostasy are not limited to Christians, however. Followers of minority Muslims sects have also been subjected to charges of apostasy. For example, in December 2015, a group of 27 people, including at least three children and all members of the Hausa ethnic group, were tried for the crime of apostasy before a Khartoum court for following a form of Islam called Koranism, which recognises the religious authority only of the Koran and rejects the religious authority of the hadith. Members of the faith have been targeted for arrest and trial on death penalty charges in Khartoum on at least two other occasions in recent years.150 members of the faith were reportedly arrested and charged with apostasy in 2011 but renounced their faith at trial to avoid the death penalty. Four members of the group had already stood trial for apostasy in 2008.
Secular Muslims have also faced challenges based on the government’s interpretation of sharia. On 1 May 2014, the Sudanese Political Parties Affairs Council (PPAC) announced that the Sudanese Republican Party’s application to register as a political party had been rejected. The Republican Party, founded by Mahmoud Mohamed Taha who was executed in 1985 under the Nimeri regime, opposes Islamic fundamentalism and promotes secularism.The PPAC argued that the Republican Party’s political ideology contradicted the constitutional provision that law in Sudan be based on Islamic sharia law and the conditions for the establishment of political parties in Sudan.The denial of registration by the PPAC also violates Republican Party members’ right to freedom of expression, association, and assembly.
For more information, please contact:
ACJPS: Mossaad Mohamed Ali/ Emily Cody: +256 779584542/ +256 788695068 (Kampala), or info@acjps.org.
