Sudanese security stabs young Girifna member

March 20, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese security service beaten and stabbed on Saturday a young member of a group of political activists campaigning to mobilize electors to vote against the dominant National Congress Party.

Mahid Al-Fadil, 17 years, had been captured by six members of the security service in Jabra, Khartoum suburb. He had been beaten and stabbed in the back before to leave him in the street.

The victim is a member of Girifna a group that since November 2009 hold spontaneous meetings in the streets of the capital encouraging Sudanese to participate in the upcoming election and to vote against the NCP candidates to achieve peaceful democratic transition in the country.

Today’s incident is part of a large scale campaign by the security service against these activists who hold their meetings in the markets or others places where people are likely easy to gather.

On 15 March, Abdallah Mahdi Badawi, an 18 year old accounting student at Ahlei University and member of Girifna was detained and tortured in Khartoum, said a statement issued by the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), yesterday.

He was beaten by 13 men with sticks, hoses, and electric wires, and interrogated as to the Girifna’s activities and sources of funding, and was taunted as to what he was “fed up” about. The name of the group means in English “we have had enough” or “we are fed up”.

Also, Sudanese security service arrested three members of Girifna on March 4, and charged them with causing “public noisiness” under Article 77 of the Criminal Act of 1991.

“In the context of the elections, such actions by Sudanese authorities indicate a pattern of silencing civic engagement by its own people, which is demonstrative of severe restrictions on civil and political freedoms,” said the ACJPS.

(ST)