Sudanese security disperses protest calling for release of opposition leaders

December 15, 2014 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) on Monday has blocked a protest by the opposition forces in front of the ministry of justice to demand the release of the chairman of the opposition alliance National Consensus Front (NCF), Farouk Abu Issa, and all political detainees.

Earlier this month, NISS arrested Abu Issa, and head of the Alliance of the Sudanese Civil Society Organisations, Amin Maki Madani, besides former ruling National Congress Party (NCP) member, Farah Agar, and his office manager, Mohamed Eldoud after their return from Addis Ababa where they signed the “Sudan Call” accord with rebel groups.

NISS officers and police, who were heavily deployed around the premises of the ministry of justice, confiscated banners calling for the release of the political detainees and prevented media from picturing the protest.

NISS officers said they received orders from higher authorities to disperse the protest even if they had to use force.

They dispersed the protest following verbal altercation with the opposition leaders.

Meanwhile, the political detainees’ defence team submitted a challenge to the constitutional court over on the legality of the arrest of Abu Issa and Madani.

The head of the defence team, Nabeel Adeeb Abdalla, told al-Intibaha daily newspaper on Monday that the constitutional court has officially received the suit, saying they are also waiting for the court’s response to their request to release the detainees.

Sudan Tribune recalls the defence team last week presented a memo to the Sudan National Human Rights Commission (SNHRC), ministry of justice and the parliamentary subcommittee on Legislation, Justice and Human Rights urging them to make efforts to release the detainees.

The memo also asked the NISS’s legal department to allow the defence team meets with the detainees.

On 3 December, Sudanese political and armed opposition forces and civil society organisations signed in Addis Ababa the “Sudan Call” for the end of war, dismantlement of the one-party state, achievement of a comprehensive peace and democratic transition in the country.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir on Saturday accused signatories of the Sudan Call of being agents to foreign powers and warned them from returning to the country.

He described the opposition parties allied with the rebel umbrella Sudan Revolutionary Forces (SRF) as “agents and mercenaries”.

(ST)