Sudan’s SCoP demands NISS to release detained members

July 30, 2017 (KHARTOUM) – The opposition Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP) Sunday has handed over a memo to the director of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) demanding the release of two of its leading members.

Former Chairman of the SCoP Ibrahim al-Sheikh and Secretary General Abu Bakr Youssef Babiker were arrested by the NISS on July 19 as they were returning from Shiekh Yaghout village, White Nile state, where they showed solidarity with Darfur students who resigned from Bakht Al-Ruda University.

SCoP legal sector including lawyers Hanan Hassan Khalifa, Hassan Fadl Allah and Khaled Saeed Mohamed Nour submitted a memo to the NISS saying the detention of al-Shiekh and Babiker “violates the 2005 constitution and the right of expression and to practice political work”.

The memo pointed the detention of the SCoP members “clearly illustrates the profound crisis in justice and human rights in the country”, saying detentions must be carried out upon judicial orders, not the NISS.

Khalifa added the next step of the party would be to file a challenge before the Constitutional Court, saying the move will expose and document the constitutional, freedoms and human rights violations.

The SCoP was established in January 1986. It was first chaired by the former chief-justice Abdel-Mageed Imam who was succeeded by Ibrahim al-Sheikh and has elected al-Digair as its third president in 2016.

The center-left reformist party calls for social justice and separation of religion and state. It also believes that peaceful transfer of power is the only way to stability and unity of the country.

In recent months, the SCoP has challenged the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and organized political activities in public and open places calling on the citizens to resist the regime and take to the streets in protest against the deterioration of living conditions at all levels.

(ST)