Sudanese female activist who claimed she was abducted recants story

June 2, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese female activist who has gone missing for several days last April has recanted her story on Tuesday after more than a month of controversy.

The 31-year old Sandra Farouk Kadouda was reported to have been forcibly taken from her car by a group of unidentified men in Sudan’s twin capital city of Omdurman as she was driving to an opposition sit-in at the National Umma Party (NUP) headquarters.

Kadouda’s car was found abandoned nearby with the keys still in the ignition and her phone was switched off.

After several days, she was as found badly beaten at a street in Khartoum in a state of extreme fatigue with a dislocation in her right shoulder apparently due to severe beating.

Kadouda never made direct statements on what happened but her family accused the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) of standing behind this incident.

The NISS subsequently filed a complaint against her for defamation after which she was interrogated intensively by state security prosecutor.

Today Kadouda issued a statement apologizing to the Sudanese people and government’s security agencies “for what I caused by claiming I was kidnapped” adding that she was not subject to torture as was reported.

A family representative by the name of Abdel-Qadir Ismail said that “a dispute occurred between Sandra and government agencies and it was imperative for the family to intervene after a blaze of publicity because of her disappearance during that period,” he said.

“We thought she was detained by the security services, but the family arrived at conclusions contrary to what was believed, therefore this press release came as a reinstatement and to clear the security services which we thought were behind this”.

Two newspapers were seized by NISS last April for discussing Kadouda’s disappearance.

(ST)