Sudan

Sudan: Update – Four human rights defenders acquitted, and charges against three others downgradedposted on: 2011/12/14

On 4 December 2011, the Khartoum North District Court acquitted four human rights defenders of all charges, and downgraded the charges against three other defenders.

Sudan: Update – Human rights defender Bushra Gamar Hussein Rahma resumes hunger strike as authorities delay his releaseposted on: 2011/10/17

Mr Bushra Gamar Hussein Rahma has resumed his hunger strike due to the failure of the Sudanese authorities to fulfil their agreement to release him or bring him to trial by 10 October 2011.

Sudan: Update – Human rights defender Bushra Gamar Hussein Rahma ends hunger strike, receives family visitposted on: 2011/10/11

Mr Bushra Gamar Hussein Rahma agreed to lift his hunger strike on 29 September 2011 in exchange for the pledge given by the authorities that he would be released or brought to trial by 10 October. Mr Rahma, who had been held in incommunicado detention since his arrest on 25 June 2011, was visited by his family on 7 October 2011 at the National Security Intelligence Service Section in Kober Prison in Khartoum North.

Sudan: Arrest and incommunicado detention of human rights defender Mr Burshra Gamar Hussein Rahmaposted on: 2011/07/05

Human rights defender Mr Burshra Gamar Hussein Rahma was arrested on 25 June 2011, at the home of a relative in Al Thawra, Omdurman, by agents of the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). It is reported that since his arrest, Mr Rahma has been held, incommunicado, at an NISS detention centre in Khartoum. He has been denied access to both his family and his lawyer.

Dr Mudawi released

Brilliant start to the day when I spoke to Dr Mudawi this morning who had just been released from Gereif Prison in Sudan. He was apparently brought a piece of paper saying the Appeal Court had upheld his conviction (without any proper process) but they had decided he had been in prison long enough! He was in good spirits talking about the almost random and arbitrary injustice which had brought most of his cell-mates to languish in prison without even having seen a court. It was very good to hear Mudawi's voice and a good start to Robert Burns' birthday. As the great bard put it:

By Oppression's woes and pains, By your sons in servile chains, We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!

(Scots Wha Hae) http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/424.htm

Dr Mudawi released

Brilliant start to the day when I spoke to Dr Mudawi this morning who had just been released from Gereif Prison in Sudan. He was apparently brought a piece of paper saying the Appeal Court had upheld his conviction (without any proper process) but they had decided he had been in prison long enough! He was in good spirits talking about the almost random and arbitrary injustice which had brought most of his cell-mates to languish in prison without even having seen a court. It was very good to hear Mudawi's voice and a good start to Robert Burns' birthday. As the great bard put it:

By Oppression's woes and pains, By your sons in servile chains, We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!

(Scots Wha Hae) http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/424.htm

Dr Mudawi released

Brilliant start to the day when I spoke to Dr Mudawi this morning who had just been released from Gereif Prison in Sudan. He was apparently brought a piece of paper saying the Appeal Court had upheld his conviction (without any proper process) but they had decided he had been in prison long enough! He was in good spirits talking about the almost random and arbitrary injustice which had brought most of his cell-mates to languish in prison without even having seen a court. It was very good to hear Mudawi's voice and a good start to Robert Burns' birthday. As the great bard put it:

By Oppression's woes and pains, By your sons in servile chains, We will drain our dearest veins, But they shall be free!

(Scots Wha Hae) http://www.worldburnsclub.com/poems/translations/424.htm

For Mudawi - A Poem

For Mudawi - On 22 December Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam was summoned to the court in Khartoum and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of £3000.

Dr Mudawi is Director of SUDO (the Sudan Social Development Organisation) and had been previously charged with financial mismanagement. Even though the court had dismissed the charges against him due to lack of evidence the Government intervened and insisted on the imposition of a prison term and fine.

This poem was written by Andrew Anderson, Deputy Director of Front Line who has worked closely with Dr Mudawi

The prison walls throw

in stark relief

the fragility of a good man

against the system

The power of quiet integrity

shining out brighter

uncaged by the banal brutality

of incarceration

The weak seek to repress

in fear of the truth

clinging vainly to the corrupt

trappings of office

And the whisper of justice breathes

over Khartoum

it's promise entwined in the lament

of days lost, but a future gained

Set free my friend Mudawi

and hope for Sudan

You can take action on behalf of Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam here

For Mudawi - A Poem

For Mudawi - On 22 December Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam was summoned to the court in Khartoum and sentenced to one year in prison and a fine of £3000.

Dr Mudawi is Director of SUDO (the Sudan Social Development Organisation) and had been previously charged with financial mismanagement. Even though the court had dismissed the charges against him due to lack of evidence the Government intervened and insisted on the imposition of a prison term and fine.

This poem was written by Andrew Anderson, Deputy Director of Front Line who has worked closely with Dr Mudawi

The prison walls throw

in stark relief

the fragility of a good man

against the system

The power of quiet integrity

shining out brighter

uncaged by the banal brutality

of incarceration

The weak seek to repress

in fear of the truth

clinging vainly to the corrupt

trappings of office

And the whisper of justice breathes

over Khartoum

it's promise entwined in the lament

of days lost, but a future gained

Set free my friend Mudawi

and hope for Sudan

Sudan: Human rights defender Dr Abdul Bassit Mirghani arrested in Khartoum following a wave of arrests across the capitalposted on: 2010/12/23

On 14 December 2010, human rights defender Dr Abdul Bassit Mirghani was arrested by Sudanese security officials in Khartoum and his current location is unknown.

Further information

This arrest forms part of a wave of arrests across Khartoum on the same day, during which 41 women and 4 men were arrested by state security officers while participating in a peaceful demonstration. Abdul Bassit Mirghani is the manager of El Fanar Centre for Human Rights, which hosted a meeting of the initiative “No to Oppressing Women” on 13 December.

On the morning of the 14 December 2010, hundreds of women and men gathered peacefully in central Khartoum as part of the initiative “No to Oppressing Women” in order to deliver a petition signed by many Sudanese citizens to the Ministry of Justice. The petition condemned the manner in which women are routinely punished in Sudan. Before the gathering reached the office of the minister, 41 women and 4 men were arrested by security officers. Some of the detainees were subject to long interrogations at the Sudanese National Intelligence Service’s headquarters and then transferred to police stations.