Rights group denounces arrest of three Sudanese female lawyers

December 9, 2009 — On Tuesday 8 December, at the Al Kalakla court complex in Khartoum, three lawyers were arrested. Initially the three were arrested for posting fliers on behalf of the Sudan Lawyers’ Democratic Front calling on lawyers to obtain certification and pay membership fees in order to vote in elections to be held in January 2010 by the Sudan Bar Association. A judge named Bashir Rahama ordered the arrest. The women were arrested by the police and interrogated, but released the same day without being charged. Immediately upon their release, an NISS car stopped them outside the police station and re-arrested them, taking them to the NISS office in the Abuadam area in Al Kalakla district. The women remain in custody. The women are:

• Ms. Butheina Umar Al Sadiq,

• Ms. Randa Yousif, and

• Ms. Nafisa Al-Nur Hajar

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies urges the Sudanese authorities to allow the women access to their lawyers and families, and to expeditiously either charge them with an internationally recognised criminal offence or release them. More broadly, the government of Sudan should not interfere with peaceful political organizing and allow for freedom of expression and association. If these freedoms are not respected, the holding of free and fair elections – whether at the level of the Sudan Bar Association or the national level – will not be possible.

Background

Elections for the Sudan Bar Association are scheduled to be held in January 2010. The previous elections of the Sudan Bar Association were held in January 2006 and pitted the National Congress Party, represented by Fathi Khalil, against the Democratic Alliance, a coalition including the Sudan Lawyers’ Democratic Front and headed by Amin Mekki Medani. The National Congress Party won amid allegations of rigging.

The results of the election were appealed in the courts by the Democratic Alliance alleging corruption and fraud. This submission was accepted by the Constitutional Court, but to date no decision in the case has been rendered.