Three Students Detained, Unknown Whereabouts and Possibility of Torture

Families appeal for access to three students detained in an unknown place since May

Three students were arrested as a result of a sit in organised by the students of Khartoum University on the 6th May 2014 asking for an investigation into the march killing of Darfuri student Ali Abakar Musa (a third year student studying Economics) and demanding the withdrawal of National Congress Party militia from the university. The three students were arrested on 6 May 2014 from among the students demonstrating within the university nearby the Institute of Development Studies. Their names are as follows.

1. Mohamed Salah Mohamed Abdel Rahman – 25 years old, activist of the Al-Jabha Al-Demoqratiya (The Democratic Front), an MA student at the Institute of Development Studies living in Jabra/Khartoum.
2. Mo’ammer Musa- 25 years old – graduated from the Faculty of Arts in Khartoum University in 2011, an activist of the Al-Islah Al-‘Aan (Reform Now).
3. Taj-Al-Sir Ja’afar – graduated from the Faculty of Science in 2010, living in Khartoum 2, an activist of Al-Haq Party (Truth).

More than 50 days after their arrest, their families have not only been denied access to them but in addition no information has yet been given to families or lawyers about their whereabouts or any charges against them. As a result their families wrote to the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) and to the National Commission for Human Rights inquiring about the detainees’ health, location and any charges made against them. However, no response has been received so far and the three students remain detained in an unknown place.

SUDO UK condemns the incommunicado detention of the three students without charge or trial. Such detention without access to the outside world facilitates the use of torture by security services and is banned by international and African human rights standards ratified by Sudan. It calls upon the Sudanese authorities to give those detained immediate access to families, lawyers and independent doctors. Since they were arrested during a peaceful protest they should be immediately released.

SUDO UK calls on Sudanese authorities to hold a public investigation into the killing of Ali Abaker Musa and to protect the right of all Sudanese to express peacefully their political views.