Student Members of Girifna Arrested and Tortured in Khartoum

(6 July 2010) At 6:30 PM on 5 July, Sudanese police arrested three student members of the Girifna movement in Souk Sitaa (Market 6) of the Alhaj Yousif area of Khartoum. Girifna, Arabic for “we are fed up”, is a non-violent social movement that began during the Sudanese voter registration to encourage civic participation and voter education through door-to-door campaigning and demonstrations. At the time of their arrest, the three students were distributing Girifna’s magazine, a new initiative. They are:

·         Hassan Ishag

·         Azzi Eldine Al-Anssari

·         Hassan Mohamed

In the first days following its publication, over 7,000 copies of the magazine were distributed throughout Khartoum and Omdurman.

The group was taken to the local Police Precinct Number 5 in Alhaj Yousif Area, and charged under Articles 69 (breach of public peace), and 63 (sedition) under the Sudanese Criminal Code of 1991. Their homes were subsequently searched. Later that evening, National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) agents took the detainees from police custody to NISS offices, where they were subjected to torture and questioned extensively about the Girifna movement before being taken back to police custody.

These arrests are the latest in a string of attacks on civil society in Sudan, which has seen an increasingly repressive environment for human rights defenders in the months since elections. The tactic of referring detainees from police custody to NISS offices has begun to be employed systematically, sending clear signals to civil society and the broader human rights community that any offense will be treated as a national security issue.

Arbitrary arrest and torture violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the UN Convention against Torture.  The three students appear to have been targeted solely due to their association with Girifna and involvement in peaceful political activities critical of the National Congress Party.  The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies calls on the government of Sudan to respect the freedom of expression, guaranteed by the Interim National Constitution (INC), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.  Article 39(1) of the INC of 2005 guarantees that “every citizen shall have an unrestricted right to the freedom of expression, reception, and dissemination of information”. The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies calls on the government of Sudan to guarantee their right to a fair trial and immediately investigate allegations of torture. If substantiated, the perpetrator should immediately face disciplinary action.

Copyright 2010