African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies ACJPS | المركز الافريقي لدراسات العدالة و السلام
(30 December 2020) Sudanese authorities should urgently investigate the reported abduction, torture, and custodial death of Mr. Baha Eldeen Nory Mohamed Ali. On 16 December, Mr. Baha Eldeen was picked up by two armed men and later detained at a Rapid Support Forces (RSF) detention centre in Alsafia neighbourhood in Khartoum North. On 21 December, Mr. Baha Eldeen’s family refused to receive his body after noticing signs of torture.
Sudanese authorities, including RSF, are known to use ill-treatment and torture for purposes of intimidation and extraction of confessions. The use of torture in Sudan is exacerbated by a weak legal framework to ensure the prohibition of torture. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights considers torture as “one of the most egregious and morally reprehensible human rights abuses” whose prohibition is a fundamental value of democratic societies.[i]
On 16 December 2020, two armed men dressed in plainclothes picked up Mr. Baha Eldeen from a local market in Kalakla Sangaat neighbourhood in Khartoum and took him away in a Toyota Hilux without a number plate. He was taken to an RSF detention centre in Alsafia neighbourhood in Khartoum North. Following his detention, Mr. Baha Eldeen’s family went looking for him and inquired at various police stations and detention centres but his whereabouts were unknown. The following day, 17 December, his family filed a case and reported his disappearance at the police station in Kalakla Sangaat neighbourhood.
Five days later, on 21 December, his family received an anonymous call informing them that Mr. Baha Eldeen had been taken to Omdurman hospital and asked them to go and receive his body. However, his family refused to receive his body without an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death. Reliable sources reported that his body showed signs of torture, including wounds on his head, hands and feet that possibly caused by both hard and sharp objects. An initial medical report claimed that the cause of death was hypertension however the deceased’s family requested another autopsy be carried out. A second medical report stated that the deceased was tortured.
On 27 December 2020, another autopsy was carried out by a committee of experts formed by the Forensic Medicine Authority based on a request from the Public Prosecution. The following day, 28 December, the Public Prosecution received the Committee’s report confirming that the deceased suffered multiple injuries that led to his death. The Public Prosecution went ahead to file a criminal case, file no. 494/2020, under charges of murder (Article 130) and joint acts of conspiracy (Article 21) of the 1991 Criminal Act. Three public prosecutors headed by a chief prosecutor have been assigned to this case.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) urges the Government of Sudan to ensure an effective investigation of Mr. Baha Eldeen’s abduction, detention, reported ill-treatment and subsequent death. Such an investigation should be thorough and impartial with the view of finding and holding the perpetrators accountable.
In a communication against Sudan, the African Commission has highlighted that “allegations of torture against public officials impose an immediate duty on the State to initiate a prompt, impartial and effective investigation in order to establish the veracity of these allegations and bring the perpetrators to justice.”[ii] It is therefore imperative that Sudan must uphold its international obligations under relevant regional and international treaties which it ratified.
ACJPS reiterates calls for the ratification and subsequent domestic implementation of International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPPED) and Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN CAT).
Taking note of on-going law reform process, particularly criminal justice reforms, ACJPS further urges that Transitional Government adopt a comprehensive reform process to ensure legislation adequately defines torture and enforced disappearances along with appropriate punishments in line with international standards; provide effective access to justice and adequate reparation to victims of torture, and ensure impartial and thorough investigations of allegations of torture and ill-treatment by state authorities. The Government should expressly denounce the use of torture by state authorities to intimidate or extract confessions from persons in their custody.
Background
In recent years, there has been increased use of “short-term” disappearances where victims are detained incommunicado for an undefined period and eventually freed. During the Sudanese Revolution, hundreds of peaceful protesters, students, human rights defenders, political opponents, journalist, and doctors were allegedly subjected to torture and inhumane conditions while detained incommunicado for months by the National Intelligence Security Services (NISS) in security-controlled detention centres and unknown locations.
Enforced Disappearances in Sudan are often coupled with other gross human rights violations, such as the practice of arbitrary arrests and/or detention, torture, rape and in some cases death. This is facilitated by the fact that victims are often detained incommunicado, in “inaccessible” detention centres, security-controlled prison sections and, in unknown locations, thus placing them outside of the protection of the law with no access to legal remedies.
For victims, lack of accountability has impacted their rights to remedy and redress, as well as the right to the truth of the families. Sudan has not ratified the ICPPED or UN CAT.
Contact: Mossaad Mohamed Ali, Executive Director, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies. (English, Arabic, Swedish): +46727712782, mossaad.ali@acjps.org
[i] Communication 368/09 – Abdel Hadi, Ali Radi & Others v Republic of Sudan
[ii] Ibid, also Communication 379/09 – Monim Elgak, Osman Hummeida and Amir Suliman (represented by FIDH and OMCT) v Sudan
