(2 July 2021) On 23 June 2021, presiding Judge Hasheem Khalaaf Alah of Elemtidad South criminal court in Khartoum sentenced Muaaz Abedelmageed to cross amputation of the right hand and left foot, after finding him guilty of armed robbery (hiraba) under article 168 of the Sudanese Criminal Act, 1991. The accused is a leader of a criminal gang that uses motorcycles to commit robberies. The accused was also ordered to return 23000 Sudanese pounds and a mobile phone that was stolen from the complainant. 

Article 168 (1)(b) of the Criminal Act 1991 provides that the punishment for armed robbery shall be amputation of the right hand and left foot if the act resulted in grievous harm or involves the robbery of property equivalent to the minimum for capital theft.

Amputation was incorporated as a form of corporal punishment through the 1983 September laws that introduced Islamic reforms. However, as a state party to international and regional treaties that prohibit torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, amputations as a form of state-sanctioned torture are a breach of Sudan’s human rights obligations.

In February 2021, the Minister of Justice announced that the Transitional Government had approved the ratification of the UN Convention Against Torture. This approval comes 35 years after Sudan added its signature to the international treaty in 1986. 

26 June marked the anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Convention Against Torture. ACJPS joins the international community in the commemoration of this day and stands in solidarity with Victims of Torture. ACJPS would also like to take this opportunity to urge the transitional Government of Sudan to prioritize legal and institutional reforms including review and amend the laws to ensure absolute prohibition of torture including state-sanctioned torture.

ACJPS urges the Sudanese Judiciary and other law enforcement agencies to impose a moratorium on the handing down and implementation of punishments amounting to state sanctioned torture. ACJPS urges that alternative punishment such as imprisonment.

Background

In July 2020, the Transitional Government announced significant reforms to Sudan’s Criminal Act including the repealing of provisions providing the punishment of flogging. This is a great step towards meeting state obligation to adopt legislative measures prohibiting torture. However, provisions prescribing the punishment of amputation remain. In its concluding observations to Sudan’s fifth periodic report, the UN Human Rights Committee found that amputation under the Criminal Act constitute gross breaches of the prohibition of torture (article 7 of the ICCPR). The Human Rights Committee urged Sudan to repeal these provisions. 

In a Curtis Francis Doebbler v Sudan, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights found 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 under the [African] Charter.”

In February 2013, credible reports indicated that medical doctors at the Sudanese Ministry of Interior’s Al Rebat Hospital implemented a court-ordered cross amputation on a 30-year-old man who was convicted of armed robbery.

ACJPS also documented a few cases of amputation penalties being handed down by the Sudanese Courts. In 2015, a judge at Jebel Awliya Criminal Court convicted a 26-year-old Sudanese man to amputation of his right hand in Khartoum for the theft of a laptop computer. The accused was convicted and sentenced to the amputation without legal representation in breach of Sudanese and international fair trial and human rights standards.  On 12 April 2015, El Geneina Criminal Court in West Darfur sentenced three men from the Masalit ethnic group in Darfur to the amputation of their right hands from the wrist for Capital Theft. The three men, who did not have legal representation in court, were found guilty of stealing 56,000 Sudanese Pounds (approximately $9,400). In April 2013, the El-Fashir criminal court in North Darfur sentenced three men to amputation of the right hand from the wrist during a trial that failed to meet the most basic fair trial standards. The amputation was later overturned by the North Darfur Appeal court.

For further information, contact Mossaad Mohamed Ali at: mossaad.ali@acjps.org