Sudan’s prosecution obstructs release of political detainees: lawyers

April 26, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – The defence team for the detained members of the suspended Empowerment Removal Committee (ERC) accused, on Tuesday, the Public Prosecution of obstructing their release and violating the decision of the judicial authority.

The court decided to release ERC members due to the lack of evidence after over two months of detention.

But the public prosecution decided to keep them in jail after lodging new criminal charges against some detained ERC members and requested a $50 million pound bail for the release of two others.

As a result, only the former Cabinet Affairs Minister Khalid Omer was released on regular bail, as he was a de jure member of the committee with no real participation in its activities.

The Emergency Lawyers said that Mohamed al-Faki and Wagdi Salih face new charges filled by a poultry company the ERC confiscated from the banned National Congress Party.

Tariq Kandyk, a member of the defence team, said in a press conference that the detention of the ERC members is “illegal” and hinted at the possibility of suing those who refused to release them.

For his part, a spokesman of the Unionist Alliance Jaafar Hassan and FFC leading member said the detainees refused to pay the bail because it was illegal.

Hassan added that the Public Prosecution requested the money, after hours of procrastination, as there were no other charges that required detention.

The Chairman of the Sovereign Council had pledged to release the ERC members who are also leading members of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) to allow them to participate in a dialogue process the tripartite mediation plans to launch soon.

(ST)