Sudan to lift immunity for police accused of crimes

August 21, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan has issued new legal decrees stripping police accused of crimes of previously held immunity from prosecution, the government said on Tuesday.

“The police director general issued a decree … granting permission for individuals of the police force to be tried for infractions, guaranteeing speedy (legal) proceedings, and denying immunity to criminal perpetrators,” an Interior Ministry statement seen by Reuters said on Tuesday.

Abdel Moneim Osman Taha, an official in the government’s human rights advisory council, said the police force issued formal decrees last month to guarantee fair legal proceedings to police accused of criminal conduct.

Taha said additional decrees also addressed humanitarian treatment of detained civilians as well as the issue of international observers operating within Sudan.

“The decrees talk about … the facilitation of the work of international observers,” he said, adding that some 70 observer bodies currently operate in Sudan, most of which are in Darfur.

U.N. rights bodies have criticised Sudan’s laws, which provide immunity from prosecution for police and army officers accused of crimes.

Rights groups have documented mass rapes, abductions and killings by militias allied to the government and urged prosecution for their crimes. Khartoum denies systematic rape or killings.

Few cases have been prosecuted by Sudan’s own special Darfur courts set up to deal with Darfur’s war crimes.

(Reuters)