Female opposition activists claim abused by Sudan security agents

February 17, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Female members of the Islamic opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) in North Sudan claimed they were assaulted on Wednesday by the country’s security authorities as they gathered to deliver a petition against the detention of fellow party members.

Last month, Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested the PCP’s leader Hassan Al-Turabi along with 20 PCP members after Al-Turabi warned the government of a Tunisia-style popular uprising if it continued to defy calls for reforms.

On Wednesday, PCP female activists including relatives of the detainees attempted to hold a protest and deliver a petition to the NISS demanding the release of the detainees.

Asmaa Al-Turabi, daughter of Hassan Al-Turabi, said in a press conference on the same day that NISS members had abusively prevented them from delivering the petition, claiming that she and her fellow protestors were subjected to physical and verbal abuse by NISS agents.

A female member of Al-Turabi’s party, Rasha Yasin Hamid, claimed she was severely beaten on her face with a sharp object and had her cloth torn by NISS members. She further claimed that NISS members had also ripped apart all the placards held by the protesting women.

Asmaa Al-Turabi stressed that the women plan to hold another sit-in in front of the NISS HQ until her father and 20 other members of the PCP are released.

(ST)