Several civil society organisations in Sudan have called for the release of the prominent political figures and lawyers, who were detained by the security apparatus nearly two weeks ago, without any charges laid upon them. The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday, condemning their detentions.
Faroug Abu Eisa, the chairman of the National Consensus Forces, Dr Amin Mekki Madani, head of the Civil Society Initiative, and Farah El Agar, a legal consultant of the armed rebel group SPLM-N, are held since 6 December. Security officers detained them in Khartoum after their return from Addis Ababa, where they had signed the Sudan Appeal with the Sudan Revolutionary Front and the National Umma Party. Another legal consultant of the SPLM-N, Mohamed El Doud, was also detained inside his home in the Sudanese capital.
The Confederation of Sudanese Civil Society Organisations (CSCSO) expressed its grave concern over the health situation of the prominent figures in a press statement. 'The detainees are deprived of taking [their] medicines for days, and their whereabouts of detention is not known, nor were they allowed to have visits or seeing their lawyers.'
Also the Farmers Union in El Gezira and Managil states raised a similar demand, and called for expanding activities that reject the campaign of political arrests by the regime.
EP condemns intimidations
The Sudanese Organisation for Defending Rights and Freedoms (SODRF) also pointed out “the continued gross violations of human rights and detentions”. The chairman of this organisation, Faroug Mohamed Ibrahim, told Radio Dabanga that the SODRF strongly condemns “the unjustified detention of prominent human rights defenders and politicians”.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Thursday that condemns the detention of NCF chairman Madani, along with 'other peaceful activists', by 582 votes to one. The Members of Parliament demanded their immediate and unconditional release. They call on the Sudanese authorities to 'end all acts of harassment and intimidation against human rights defenders, to abolish the death penalty and to review the National Security Act, which allows detention of suspects for up to four and a half months without any form of judicial review'. 57 members abstained from voting.
File photo: The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.