88 political detainees are still in jail: Sudanese lawyers
May 8, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese lawyers revealed on Sunday that there are at least 88 political detainees held in jail many of whom were subjected to torture, despite the pledges made by the military leaders about their release.
In a bid to quell the anti-coup protests, the security forces arrested dozens of activists of the Resistance Committees and leaders of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) after the coup of October 25, 2021.
In a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday, the Emergency Lawyers confirmed the presence of about 88 detainees in the Sudanese prisons across the country.
“There are 27 detainees in Soba prison, 2 in Muqrin detention facility and one detainee in Debek prison (in Khartoum state), in addition to 29 in Port Sudan, (Red Sea State) and 29 in Rabak (of the White Nile state),” said Rahba Mubarak one of the lawyers who spoke to the media on Sunday.
The lawyer underscored that the security forces have returned to their old bad habits and cruelly torture the political detainees.
“They burn the detainees with car mufflers,” she stressed before adding that as a result of this cruel torture there are four detainees subjected to “third-degree burns” along with other detainees who lost the ability to speak due to torture.
The third-degree burns destroy the outer layer of skin (epidermis) and the entire layer beneath (the dermis).
The lawyers further spoke about the current dysfunction and paralysis of the legal system due to the muddling of the military rulers.
They underscored that the Resistance Committees activists are held without a judicial decision or even by the public prosecutor.
Also, the said the public prosecution abandoned his supervisory authority over the detainees’ conditions, to the acting governor who is also head of the security committee in Khartoum State.
“The acting Wali of Khartoum (…) renews the detention orders without any complaints lodged against them,” she added.
The head of the Sovereign Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan used to reassure the foreign diplomats about the release of activists and FFC political leaders within the confidence building-measures he agreed to implement ahead of the dialogue process.
However, during their press conference, the Emergency Lawyers repeated that the country is in a “lawlessness situation” created by the coup and that the security services practice grave human rights violations on a daily basis.
It is worth mentioning that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on November 12, 2021, appointed Adama Dieng as an expert to monitor human rights in Sudan, following a request from the UN Human Rights Council.
(ST)