Sudanese court considers appeal against ban of SPLM-N – lawyer

August 30, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Constitutional Court has agreed to adjudicate a case of appeal against the ban imposed by security authorities on the opposition-turned-rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement North (SPLM-N), a lawyer said on Thursday.

Salih Idrees, the lawyer who submitted the appeal, said that he received a notification from the Court on Tuesday, 28 August, that he should pay the appeal case fees within 72 hours. He added that the 2,000 Sudanese pound fees had been paid and the case is now eligible for consideration.

Sudanese authorities banned SPLM-N activities, confiscated its assets and arrested dozens of its members in Khartoum and elsewhere following the outbreak of fighting with the group’s combatants in the border states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile last year.

SPLM-N leaders such as Malik Aggar, Yasir Arman and Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu were branded “terrorists” and issued arrest warrants later referred to the Interpol on charges of inciting war against the state and undermining the constitutional system.

The crackdown on the SPLM-N was instituted under article 50 of the National Security Forces Law which represents the legal framework of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS). Article 50 gives NISS wide powers in arrests, search and seizure.

Idress said that his team is drafting a defense memorandum on the basis that international human rights conventions confirm the unconstitutionality of article 50.

(ST)