MIL OSI – Source: Amnesty International NZ –
Headline: Three activists released from detention
Three Sudanese activists have been released after two months in detention without charge.
Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman, Moamar Musa Mohamed and Taj Alsir Jaafar were released from detention on 11 July. The three were detained by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) outside the University of Khartoum on 12 May. All three are youth activists and were involved in protests at the University of Khartoum in late March after a student was shot dead by security forces at a demonstration on 11 March.
After their arrests, Moamar Musa Mohamed was taken to Kober prison, while Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman and Taj Alsir Jaafar were held in the NISS detention facility in Bahri, Khartoum. Both Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman and Taj Alsir Jaafar reported being subjected to ill-treatment during their detention. They were held in cells known as ‘the fridges’, which are kept deliberately cold to make detainees feel uncomfortable. Both were also reportedly beaten, resulting in bruises on their bodies and faces. Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman is still struggling to see through his right eye. In late June Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman and Taj Alsir Jaafar began a hunger strike, which, according to their parents, lasted three days before they were taken to a nearby hospital.
At no point were Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman, Moamar Musa Mohamed or Taj Alsir Jaafar charged or granted access to a lawyer. The NISS rejected four applications by the families of Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman and Taj Alsir Jaafar to visit them in detention, only allowing family members to briefly visit them on 13 June. The NISS twice refused to accept medication that Taj Alsir Jaafar’s family tried to send him via the NISS office. Moamar Musa Mohamed?s family did not manage to visit him while he was in detention.
During the week of 7 July the NISS informed the families of all three men that they would be detained without charge for further investigations for another three months, in line with Sudan’s 2010 National Security Act. Four days later, on 11 July, the NISS released Moamar Musa Mohamed from Kober prison before releasing Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman and Taj Alsir Jaafar that evening.
No explanation was given for their release, although Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman and Taj Alsir Jaafar were required to sign a pledge stating that they would not participate in or incite further demonstrations. Shortly after their release all three reunited with their friends and then returned to their families’ homes.
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