Trial of human rights activists resume in Khartoum

September 4, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – Trial of human rights activists affiliated with the Centre for Training and Development (TRACKS) has resumed Sunday in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

On 22 May, eight activists from TRACKS have been arrested after they were summoned to the Office of the Prosecutor for Crimes against the State following charges filed against them by the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).
Five of them were later released while three are still being detained.

The state’s security prosecution office transferred the case of TRACKS’s staff members to the court after charging them with counts that could lead to the death sentence and life imprisonment. They have also been accused of undermining the constitutional order, provoking war against the state, criminal complicity, instigating an insurgency against the regime, and disseminating false news.

During the trial on Sunday, the police detective presented 133 books containing human rights topics besides a number of personal computers and laptops and mobile phones saying they were seized from TRACKS premises upon a search warrant issued by state security prosecutor office.

He also presented human rights training manuals and education materials calling to boycott Sudan’s general elections which were held in April 2015.

The detective added they also seized books educating trainees about human rights violations and rape incidents that occurred in Darfur and Abyei besides the killing case of Awadiya Agabna.

Agabna was shot dead in 2012 in front of her house by a member of the Public Order Police (POP) named Hamid Ali Hamid during an altercation between them and her brother after they accused him of being drunk and attempted to gain entry into his house.

The police detective pointed they found a message the centre received from the United States Institute of Peace and a letter written in English showing that the funding which was allocated to Al-Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development (KACE) has been transffered to TRACKS.

KACE was shut down by the NISS in 2012 after it was accused of being linked to the opposition and working to topple the regime.

The detector added the court ordered to send some of the seized documents which were written in English to the Translation and Arabicization Unit at the University of Khartoum for translation.

Last week, several rights groups and UN experts called on the Sudanese authorities to drop charges against TRACKS staff and immediately and unconditionally release three of them who have been in detention since May.

(ST)