Sudan requests arrest warrant against Amnesty International director
By: Wasil Ali
September 17, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government filed an application with the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL) for the arrest of the top Amnesty International official.
Amnesty International alleged that jailed opposition figures accused by Khartoum of a coup attempt were tortured and physically abused.
The former presidential assistant Mubarak Al-Fadil was arrested mid-July along with a number of retired army generals, including retired general Mohamed Ali Hamid, who worked as deputy director of security in the late eighties, as well as former minister of tourism, Abdeljalil al-Basha.
Sudan has categorically denied the allegations of torture saying that the detainees were well treated and afforded their full constitutional rights.
However the detainees were not charged with anything since their arrest while reports suggest that Sudanese authorities have been to extract confession from them.
Sudan’s Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi has said late August that charges were being brought against 25 people.
Sudanese officials have been making contradictory statements regarding the nature of the plot and the extent of foreign involvement.
Sudan said Al-Fadil smuggled weapons into the capital Khartoum in preparation for a coup.
But Sudan’s presidential adviser Nafi Ali Nafi admitted to reporters later that no weapons have been found in association with the alleged plot.
Initially Sudanese authorities accused Al-Fadil of being the mastermind of a sabotage plot in Khartoum and said that he sought support from Libya and the US.
But then Sudanese officials denied any foreign involvement and upgraded charges against Al-Fadil to a full blown coup attempt and said that political assassinations was part of the plot.
Following that Sudanese security officials who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity said al-Fadil had sought support from Libya. The officials said Libya had turned him down and informed Sudanese authorities.
Al-Fadil mentioned in his diaries in prison that were leaked to the press that Sudanese security officers questioned his meeting with the former US Ambassador David Shinn in Khartoum in what he described as an attempt to prove foreign involvement in the alleged coup attempt.
Al-Fadil was appointed as a presidential adviser for economic affairs in 2002 but was sacked after making contacts with the United States without Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir’s consent.
(ST)