Detention of former Sudanese police officer aims for dropping corruption lawsuits

July 19, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – A lawyer defending the Empowerment Removal Committee (ERC) detained members said that the purpose of the continued detention of a former police officer was to pressure him to waive corruption lawsuits he had filed against former regime leaders.

Abdallah Suleiman, a police colonel heading the forces tasked with the implementation of the committee’s decisions was arrested after the coup of last October. The other members have been released but he remains in jail on the grounds that there was a breach of trust case filed against him by the Ministry of Finance.

“The purpose of the continued detention of Suleiman is to blackmail him or to bring him to waive the lawsuits he filed in exchange for his freedom.” Rehab Mubarak, a member of the ERC defence team told the Sudan Tribune, on Sunday.

According to Mubarak, the police officer had filed 106 corruption cases against the leaders of the former regime at the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The police lifted Suleiman’s immunity, following a lawsuit filed by the wife of the ousted president, Wedad Babiker, accusing him of filming her during an interrogation at the headquarters of the Committee.

The judge requested his release in September 2021 as al-Basjir’s wife had withdrawn the lawsuit. But the police relieved him in December of the same year after the coup.

The lawyer stressed that Suleiman’s detention for nearly nine months without trial constitutes a clear breach of the law, the constitution, and human rights laws.

She added that the defence team demanded the prosecution to refer the case against Suleiman to the court, “since he is under arrest without legal basis”.

The coup leader Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan suspended the ERC activities immediately after the dissolution of the civilian government on October 25, 2021.

The lawyer ruled out their possible re-arrest, noting that this can only happen once they are convicted by the court in a new case.

Rumours circulated on Saturday that the military component is pressing the general prosecutor to re-arrest again the ERC leaders who are also leading members of the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC).

According to the rumours, the coup leaders mobilized those who had been affected by the committee to lodge complaints against its leaders.

(ST)