Arab body urges UN to secure release of Sudanese opponents
September 26, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan is illegally holding 25 opposition figures without charge, the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) said, urging the United Nations to take action to secure their immediate release.
The men were accused of plotting to overthrow the government, but none of the detainees has been charged.
“AOHR wishes to bring before the Council the current situation concerning the arbitrary arrest and continued unlawful detention of some 25 persons,” the pan-Arab group said in a written intervention to the U.N. Council for Human Rights obtained by Reuters on Wednesday.
“AOHR strongly believes that this is a clear example of absence of due process in the face of persons who the regime considers as political opponents and against whom the regime uses the machinery of justice to realize its political objectives,” it added.
AOHR urged the U.N. council to work to secure the immediate release of the detainees. Rights group Amnesty International has said that some of those arrested had been tortured, hung from their wrists and beaten.
Khartoum denies any torture and said it would take legal action against Amnesty.
AOHR quotes Sudan’s Criminal Procedure Act, saying a suspect can be detained for a maximum of two weeks for investigation after which they must be released or charged.
It said a court rejected an appeal on those grounds by lawyers “without adequate reason”.
U.N. rapporteur for human rights in Sudan Sima Samar expressed concern at the arrests ahead of elections due by 2009, and urged the government to work with more transparency.
(Reuters)
Below the text of the intervention of the AOHR before the Un rights boday:
INTERVENTION BEFORE THE UN COUNCIL ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SEPTEMBER 25, 2007
The Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) wishes to express its deep concern over the serious situation of human rights in the region of Darfur, and in the Sudan as a whole. AOHR is aware of the efforts made by the UN Council on Human Rights through the Special Rapporteur and the Council’s Team of Experts to remedy the situation through the UN system and other international, regional and national interlocutors.
On this occasion, AOHR wishes to bring before the Council the current situation concerning the arbitrary arrest and continued unlawful detention of some 25 persons including Mubarak El Mahdi, Chairman of the Umma Party (Reform and Renewal), Ali Mahmoud Hassenein, Deputy Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Abdel Galil El Basha, Senior member of El Mahdi’s Party, Brigadier (Retired) Mohammed Ali Hamid and some 20 other retired officers of different ranks.
The group were arrested from their homes by the State Security Organisation (STO) on the early hours of 14th July, 2007. In a press broadcast to the nation STO declared that all those arrested were engaged in a plot of sabotage and violence, of causing massive explosions in Khartoum, committing assassinations of various political leaders, and of recruiting persons to overthrow the regime in power.
After 3 weeks of intensive ex-communicado detention of these persons, including search of places and homes, questioning of alleged witnesses and co-detainees, STO found no trace of evidence either in the form of documents, plans, conscripts, weapons, confession or any form of evidence. STO then referred the case on 6/8/2007 to the prosecution. By order of the Minister of Justice, an investigation Committee has been established which repeated the same lengthy investigation, including confrontation among the detainees to verify the credibility of their statements. Nothing has come out of the Committee’s investigation. A petition by a team of Defense Lawyers, asking for dismissal of the proceedings and release of the detainees or, alternatively, their release on bail, was rejected by the Committee on the pretext that their investigations have not yet been completed.
Under Section 79 of Criminal Procedure Act, 1991 a person can be detained for investigation: (a) for a maximum of 24 hours by the police, 9b) a maximum of 3 days by the Prosecuting Attorney, (c) renewal of a maximum of two weeks by a competent Magistrate.
Following that, the person must be promptly released – unless he has been charged where his detention maybe renewed for a period of two weeks at a time, up to six months, with approval of the Chief of the relevant Judicial Organization.
Following refusal of the Investigation Committee to release the detainees, Defense lawyers petitioned the competent court to release them as their detention has reached two months, and they have not been charged or released. The Court, without adequate reason, refused to order the release and its decision is now contested before the Court of Appeal.
AOHR strongly believes that this is a clear example of absence of due process in the face of persons who the regime considers as political opponents and against whom the regime uses the machinery of justice to realize its political objectives.
AOHR strongly condemns the denial of citizens of due process of law and their constitutional rights of freedom by explicitly stated in the Bill of Rights in the Transitional Constitution of 2005 and the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, to which Sudan is a party, and urges the Council to take all the necessary action to secure the release of the said detainees.