African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(8 August 2014) Sudanese authorities should urgently investigate the deaths of two men in early August following their detention and flogging in a Port Sudan police station and hold those responsible to account, said the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS).
Hussein Hadab, (m), age 45, a businessman and member of the Beja ethnic group, and Khamis Koko, (m), age 60, and a member of the Nuba ethnic group, were both convicted under article 78 (drinking alcohol and public nuisance) by Judge Kamal Sidig at the Public Order court of Diem Mayo in Port Sudan. The men were held in the public order police cell and died immediately following their release from police custody. Neither had access to counsel during their trials.
While the circumstances of these deaths remains mysterious, sources indicated to ACJPS that they believed they may have died because of the poor conditions of their detention and subsequent flogging. Doctors that performed post-mortems on both men indicated that the cause of death was a sudden drop in circulation. The Diem Mayo Public Order police station is consistently over-crowded, and meals are irregular, according to former detainees. The temperatures in the cells can reach over 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). One cell, designed to hold twenty five individuals, held approximately seventy detainees when Mr. Hadab and Mr. Koko were detained.
In the week of 28 June, the beginning of the Eid holiday, a number of detainees were held in custody for up to six days until court sessions resumed later in the week. Mr. Hadab was held from his arrest on 31 July till his conviction on 3 August. He was sentenced to forty lashes, which were implemented immediately. Following his flogging, Mr. Hadab was transferred to the Port Sudan Police Office to collect his belongings. Reliable sources informed ACJPS that at the Police Office he drank a glass of water before collapsing and falling into a coma. Mr. Hadab was taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on 3 August. The second detainee, Khamis Koko, was held from 3 August to 4 August, when he was tried and sentenced to forty lashes, which were implemented immediately. In addition Mr. Koko was sentenced to a fine of 200 Sudanese pounds and two months imprisonment. When he was transferred to the Port Sudan Prison to begin his two months detention, the prison police refused to admit him due to his poor health. He was taken by judicial police to the Port Sudan hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4am on 5 August.
Across Sudan, individuals accused of public order crimes, which includes article 152 of the 1991 Sudanese Penal Code (indecent or immoral acts), are not guaranteed access to counsel and are often subjected to summary trials, raising concerns over their compatibility with the right to a fair trial. Judges have the discretion to set the amount of fine and amount of imprisonment. The punishments frequently imposed in such cases, particularly whipping, are incompatible with the prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment. In May 2014 ACJPS documented three cases in Omdurman in which women were sentenced to varying imprisonment and fines without legal representation for the sale of alcohol. Their convictions rested solely on the testimony of the arresting public order police officers.
ACJPS has also documented several instances of floggings of women for “indecent and immoral dress”. In anti-regime protests that occurred throughout Sudan in September 2013, a group of eight demonstrators was sentenced by Omdurman Central Criminal Court without legal counsel to twenty lashes under articles 67 (disturbance of public peace) and 77 (public nuisance) of the 1991 Sudanese Penal Code. The sentence was carried out immediately.
In addition to investigating the circumstances of the deaths of the two men, the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls on the Government of Sudan to:
- Uphold the right of the accused to receive a fair trial and adequate legal representation in accordance with Sudanese and international law;
- Immediately stop imposing floggings and all other forms of corporal punishment, such as stoning and amputations, and bring Sudanese laws in line with Sudan’s international law commitments to prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
- Investigate prison and police cell conditions, particularly allegations of overcrowding, lack of appropriate health care, and lack of food. Similar grievances raised across Sudan’s prisons should be addressed, and appropriate independent complaint mechanisms established.
Background
As a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Sudan has made a commitment to an absolute ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In 1997, the UN Human Rights Committee called for Sudan to abolish flogging, amputation, and stoning because they are incompatible with Sudan’s obligations under the ICCPR. The government of Sudan did not comply.
Sudan is also a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In the case of Doebbler v Sudan, concerning the use of flogging as a punishment in Sudan, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled that: “there is no right for the government of a country to apply physical violence to individuals for offences. Such a right would be tantamount to sanctioning State sponsored torture,” contrary to article 5 of the African Charter.
ACJPS monitoring of prison conditions has revealed that prisons in Sudan often suffer from severe shortages in food supplies, overcrowding, and lack of appropriate medical and other care facilities. This is exacerbated by an increasing prison population and low prison budgets.
Contact: Emily Cody, Programme Officer, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), in Kampala on +256 788695068, or e-mail info@acjps.org.
