Group of 27 stand trial for apostasy after attending Qur’anist gathering in Khartoum

07:02 PM Dec, 02 2015

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(2 December 2015) A group of 27 people, including at least three children, are currently on trial for the crime of apostasy before a Khartoum court, accused of following a form of Islam which strictly follows the text of the Qur’an and rejects the religious authority of the Hadith (narratives of what the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said and done).

The crime of apostasy – provided under Article 126 of the 1991 Criminal Act of Sudan – carries the death penalty and prohibits any Muslim from renouncing Islam by any “express statement” or “conclusive act”. The offence was extended in early 2015 to include (a) any public criticism of the prophet Muhammad; (b) any contradiction or alteration of the Qur’an (c) any ‘excommunication’ of ‘companions’ of Mohamed in general or Abu Bakr, Omer, Osman or Ali in particular; and (d) any criticism of Mohammad’s wife Aisha.

The group of 27 were arrested on 3 November 2015 from a public forum taking place outside a small Qur’anist mosque (zawia) in the western neighbourhood (Hai Al Garabi) of Mayo, south Khartoum. Two Imams delivering speeches were amongst those arrested, as well as at least three children.

According to eyewitness accounts, armed police arrived at the scene, ordered the event to disperse, and arrested everyone present. The 27, who are all from the Hausa ethnic group, were taken to Hai Al Nasr police station where the police filed criminal case No. 5052/2015 against Rabel Abdul Hamid and others under Articles 77 (Public Nuisance), 96 (Omission to produce document or deliver statement) and 126 (Apostasy) of the Criminal Act of 1991. Article 126 carries the death penalty. The entire group was transferred to Omdurman prison to await trial.

The trial began at Hai Al Nasr Criminal Court on 29 November. Three children were released on bail on 1 December, day three of the hearing, after birth certificates were presented to the court. The court has been informed that apostasy charges were brought against the group because members of the faith do not observe the Hadith and a number of their religious practices are not in line with Islam.

The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) and Sudanese Human Rights Initiative (SHRI) call on the government of Sudan to immediately release and drop the charges against the group of 27 who are prisoners of conscience and have been put on trial solely because of their religious beliefs. The charges are discriminatory and violate constitutional and international law guarantees of equality before the law, non-discrimination and the freedom of religion.

Article 31 of Sudan’s Interim National Constitution of 2005 provides that all persons are “equal before the law and are entitled without discrimination, as to race, colour, #######, language, religious creed, political opinion, or ethnic origin, to the equal protection of the law.” Article 38 further provides that “[e]very person shall have the right to the freedom of religious creed and worship … no person shall be coerced to adopt such faith, that he/she does not believe in, nor to practice rites or services to which he/she does not voluntarily consent.”

The Government of Sudan should repeal legislation criminalising apostasy and further revise all legislation that has the purpose or effect of discriminating against religious and ethnic minorities, women and other individuals on account of their personal characteristics and issue an immediate moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty and all forms of corporal punishment.

Background

Followers of Qur’anism (referred to as “Qur’anists”) profess to use only the Qur’an to guide their faith and often reject the religious authority of the Hadith. Members of the faith have been targeted for arrest and trial on death penalty charges in Khartoum on at least two other occasions in recent years.

150 members of the faith were reportedly arrested and charged with apostasy in 2011 but recanted their faith at trial to avoid the death penalty. Four of those accused in 2011 had already stood trial for apostasy charges in 2008.

In the first case, on 16 July 2008, apostasy charges against four men were dropped when they recanted their faith before judge Abdalla Abdulbagi at Hai Al Nasr Criminal Court. The four men – Yahia Omer Ibrahim, Suliman Mohamed Ibrahim, Zakaria Abdalla, and Mohamed Musa Omar – stood accused of belonging to a “Qur’anist” group that considers that Qur’an as the sole source of religious authority, rejects the Hadith and follows certain rituals that diverge from what the police complainants considered to constitute Islamic practice. The court heard that the group practices their rituals at a seminary (in Arabic, khalwa) within a private house in Mayo, South Khartoum. Allegations included that members of the group say their Friday prayers by performing four prostrations reciting Qur’anic verses silently; they do not have any call to prayer (A’zaan); and members of the group follow different ablution practices to those ordinarily performed by Muslims prior to prayer. After the men recanted their faith, the judge issued a recommendation for the Religious Affairs Department within the Ministry of Guidance and Endowments to teach them the fundamentals of Islam. According to court files, Hai Al Nasr police continued to monitor the place of worship and the activities of the four men after their release and following reports that the group had re-engaged in religious rituals that were considered contrary to Islam. In July 2011 joint forces of the police and the NISS raided the seminary and detained 150 people. 21 women and children were released immediately whilst 129 people were charged under Articles 69 (Disturbing Public Peace), Article 77 (Public Nuisance), and Article 126 (Apostasy) of the 1991 Criminal Act. The majority were released on bail but the four men who had previously been tried in 2008 were detained pending trial. The group of 129, all from the Hausa ethnic group, were brought to trial in September 2011. All charges were dropped at a court session on 22 September 2011 when the group of accused repented in the presence of a representative from the Sudanese Scholars Authority (Sheikh Mohamed Ahmed Hasan) and in front of the judge, Osama Hasan.


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