Salafist Jihadist group denies deal with Sudanese security services
February 23, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The Salafist Jihadist Jama’at al-I’tisam bil-Quran wal-Sunna group Monday denied that it has struck a deal with the Sudan National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) to release its leaders as it was claimed by some media reports.
In a statement extended to Sudan Tribune Monday, the Salafist Jihadist group said they were pleased by the release of its leaders particularly as it came after the prosecutor general dismissed the criminal charges filed against them.
The statement pointed that the charges against the group leaders were filed under article (65) of the Criminal Code and articles (5) and (6) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
It pointed to the merits of the prosecutor general’s decision, saying he pointed that the defendants were arrested and kept in detention for a period of nearly six months on “flimsy grounds”.
The statement added that the prosecutor general found no evidence to continue the legal procedures against the defendants and accordingly he decided to cancel the case and release them.
The Salfaist Jihadist group further criticized some media outlets which claimed that the six leaders were released after they struck a deal with the NISS.
Expert on the Jihadist groups, Al-Hadi Mohamed Al-Amin told Sudan Tribune that the decision of the prosecutor general to cancel the charges against the leaders of the Salafist Jihadist group reveals that legislation and laws don’t keep abreast of the developments associated with the activities of those groups.
He said the laws fall short of indicting those religious leaders on recruiting and sending college students and young people to Iraq, Syria and Libya to join the Islamic State (ISIS).
Al-Amin stressed the need to introduce new legislations and laws to meet the developments associated with the activities of the Salafist Jihadist groups, calling for drafting a legal and constitutional framework to accommodate the changes in the activities of those groups.
He underscored that NISS and the Salafist Jihadist groups continued to strike deals which secure the release of the latter’s leaders, pointing to the release of several Jihadists who were detained while making bombs in Al-Salama neighbourhood in Khartoum in 2010.
Al-Amin also pointed that Mubarak Mustafa who was convicted for being an accomplice in the escape operation from a prison of four prison inmates convicted of killing an American diplomat and his driver was released upon a presidential pardon.
John Granville, 33, who worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and his 40-year-old Sudanese driver Abdel-Rahman Abbas were hit in their car by a hail of bullets before dawn on 2008 New Year’s Day.
Sudanese authorities eventually managed to capture five men believed to be belonging to the Islamic militant group Ansar al-Tawhid, and charged them with the assassination.
Al-Amin added that no clear charges were filed against those Salafist Jihadist in most of those incidents due to the shortfall in the legislations, noting the arrest of those leaders was intended to break their will in order to force them to strike the deals to secure their release.
(ST)