Amnesty calls on Sudan to ‘end the miscarriage of justice against Dr Mudawi‘

Reacting to the start of the trial against Sudanese human right champion Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam and his colleague Hafiz Idris El Doma in Khartoum today, Amnesty International has called on the Sudanese authorities to immediately release them, and “halt its misguided assault on dissenting voices in the country”.

The statement points out that Dr Mudawi and Hafiz, who were arrested in Khartoum in November and December, are facing six trumped-up charges, including undermining the constitutional system and waging war against the state, both of which carry either the death penalty or life imprisonment.

“Dr Mudawi has continuously been harassed by the Sudanese government for his human rights work in Darfur and across Sudan for more than a decade. Unfortunately, this latest round sees the harassment take a more sinister turn as both he and his colleague Hafiz potentially face the death penalty,” said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

“Human rights work is not a crime, so Dr Mudawi and Hafiz must be immediately and unconditionally released. Their detention and continued incarceration is a miscarriage of justice, plain and simple.”

Dr Mudawi, an engineering professor at the University of Khartoum, was arrested by intelligence agents on December 7 2016. He founded and is the former director of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), and has won several human rights awards.

Hafiz Edris El Doma, a displaced person from Darfur, was detained on 24 November 2016 at Dr Mudawi’s house.

Amnesty International is campaigning for Dr Mudawi’s release as part of its Brave campaign.