Families of detained university students call for their immediate release
May 25, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Tens of relatives of students arrested by the Sudanese security service have protested at the office of the vice chancellor of the Khartoum University on Wednesday demanding their immediate release.
Following this decision, on May 5, armed men in plain clothes of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service stormed into the office of the lawyer Nabil Adeeb in Khartoum and arrested dozens of students who hired him to challenge the dismissal decision.
On Wednesday tens of the students’ families have handed over a memorandum to the minister of the higher education and the vice chancellor to protest the detention without charge.h They described their treatment as unfair.
The memo, which was supported by the university’s teachers, the graduates association and the students lawyers, said that in addition to the punishments” the Vice Chancellor of the University of Khartoum made outrageous rumours against the students, a matter that paved the way for the security service to arrest and torture them”.
The signatories to the memo have held the university officials responsible for the safety of the students, saying that the case would not take that course if the university adopted wisdom and constructive dialogue and committed to the laws.
They further called them to reach the security service to ensure the immediate release of the students, urging the university administration to reverse the dismissal decisions.
The students started legal actions against the merits of the university’s vice chancellor dismissal decision but they were surprised by the security service raid at the lawyer’s office, the memo said.
The students were brutally beaten before taken to unknown place inaccessible to their families and lawyers” the memo added.
The memo has blamed external bodies for the crises of the university, pointing out that the protection of the independence of the university’s institutions is essential to solve the university crisis.
Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the continued arrest without charges of the Sudanese university students.
“If the authorities have credible evidence that any of those detained have committed legitimate offenses, they should have already charged the detainees. Anyone not already charged should be released pending any potential charges the authorities intend to bring”, Human Rights Watch said.
The international rights group pointed that the Sudanese security services have “repeatedly and violently cracked down on protests, including in September and October 2013, when security forces killed more than 170 protesters”.
(ST)