Sudanese security releases six detained university students
June 19, 2016 (KHARTOUM)- Sudanese security Sunday released six students of the University of Khartoum after several weeks of detention without charges.
The six were detained last May after taking part in demonstrations to protest the relocation of the historical university to construct touristic and business buildings.
In a statement released on Sunday, the University of Khartoum said its efforts to release the students succeeded upon a meeting between the Vice Chancellor of the university Ahmed Mohamed Suleiman and the Director General of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Mohamed Atta.
“The six included four female students”, the statement said.
Hours before the release of the students, representatives of several European Union embassies and other western diplomatic missions in Khartoum met with family members of the students who were detained without charge since two months.
Sudan Tribune learnt that the families of the students briefed the European ambassadors on the university decision to dismiss six students and suspend 11 others for their alleged role in April protests.
The EU diplomats have been raising the detention of the university students with the Sudanese authorities as a principled issue of human rights. They pointed that all the detainees, at least, have the right to a legal process and access to a lawyer.
The decision to sack the students was made by the vice chancellor of the university after eruption of clashes between the students and the police upon reports about the government’s plans to move the oldest university in the country, found in 1902, to Soba district, 19 km south of Khartoum.
Following their dismissal, on May 5, armed NISS agents in plain clothes stormed into the office of the lawyer Nabil Adeeb in Khartoum and arrested dozens of students who hired him to challenge the dismissal decision.
The vice chancellor on Sunday evening met with the six released students and told them that “the university will be very strict in the enforcement of administrative regulations,” announced a statement released by the University of Khartoum on Sunday.
“The purpose of the university is to prepare for the professions and having specialists in the various branches of science, and it will maintains its status and develop it through sustaining its academic and research performance”, further said the statement.
The vice chancellor has affirmed that there is no way for practicing non-academic activities within the university campus.
He further reiterated the decisions of the council of deans, which are approved by the university council, to dismiss or suspend those who were involved in the demonstrations.
“However, the students will enjoy their right to appeal the decisions”, he added.
Tens of the students’ families have previously handed over a memorandum to the minister of the higher education and the vice chancellor to protest the detention without charge.
The memorandum, which was supported by the university’s teachers, the graduates association and the students’ lawyers, described the punishment decisions by the university as unfair and hasty.
(ST)