9 Darfuri activists released after nearly 3 months jail; 4 still held

Security authorities released nine Darfuri activists who had been arrested in Khartoum at the end of October last year. The nine were released on “regular surety,” according to their counsel Mr. Mohamed Abdullah Ad-Duma Al-Mahami.  The detainees, who were released last Thursday night, are: Dirar Adam Dirar, Abulgasim Mohamed Ali Hamouda, Zakaria Yagoub Ibrahim, Adam Al Nur Adam, Ibrahim Adam Ismail, Khaled Ishag Mohamed Yusef, Manal Mohamed Ahmed, Aisha Al-Nur Jibril, Aziza Ali Idris.

Mr. Ad-Duma said that there are still four Darfuri detainees who were not covered by the release, those being Mr. Jaafar Sabki, editor of Al Sahafa newspaper; Mr. Abdulrahman Gasim, an activist and lawyer in the field of human rights; Mr. Abdelrahman Adam Abdelrahman, an editor of Radio Dabanga; and Ms. Kawthar Abdelhaq Omer.

The Darfuri detainees are represented by a team of more than 30 senior lawyers, headed by Mr. Mustafa Abdelgader. According to Mr. Ad-Duma, the defense team on Monday will present a request to the prosecutor to either release the remaining four detainees or bring them to trial. Mr. Ad-Duma said that they are confident there is no case against the four.