Sudan security arrests members of solidarity committee, detainees’ families

June 9, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested on Monday three members of the committee for solidarity with the families of martyrs and political prisoners for organising a protest in Khartoum.

Eyewitnesses told Sudan Tribune that three of the detainees including Salah Abdel-Rahman, Zakaria Mohamed Hamad and Emad Hamid were taken into a Toyota truck to an unknown location. Abdel-Rahman was later released they said, while the fate of his two companions is unknown.

According to Al-Tareeq website, Abdel-Rahman expressed concern over the health condition of his son Mohamed Salah who was detained on 12 May, revealing that the NISS rejected several family requests to visit their detained son.

“NISS’s refusal to allow us to meet our son means he was subjected to torture and they don’t want us to see it”, he said.

He called for the immediate release of his son and all political detainees on top of them the leader of the National Umma Party (NUP), al-Sadiq al-Mahdi.

The mother of the detained student, Tag al-Sir Ja’afar, called for releasing her son and said she is concerned about his health condition because he is sick and on medication, saying she does not know whether he takes his drugs in prison or not.

Last May, NISS carried out a massive arrest campaign against pro-opposition students amid escalating violence at the University of Khartoum (UofK).

The detained students included Tag al-Sir Ja’afar from the New Forces Movement (NFM), Muamar Musa from the Reform Now Party (RNP) and Mohamed Salah from the Democratic Front (DM) which is the students’ arm of the communist party.

Late last month, NISS prevented activists and families of the detainees from protesting and submitting a memorandum to the National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) calling for the immediate release of political prisoners and stop of human rights violations throughout the country.

The memo mentioned 14 violations committed since 27 January when the presidency announced allowing public freedoms in the country.

Those violations included detention of the UofK students, releasing only 5 detainees while 25 others are still imprisoned besides sentencing a woman accused of apostasy to death.

On 15 May, a Khartoum court sentenced 27-year-old Meriam Yehya Ibrahim to death by hanging for apostasy after she refused to recant her faith and revert to Islam.

(ST)