Darfur lawyers demand students’ release

The Darfur Bar Association (DBA) condemned the arrest of two Darfuri students at the Khartoum North Criminal Court last week.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Darfur lawyers point to the legal right to attend trial sessions in the country, and demand the immediate release of the two Darfuri students who were arrested at the Khartoum Bahri Criminal Court last Wednesday.

The judge of the Khartoum North Criminal Court ordered the arrest of Mohamed Abdelrahman Hamdi, a student at the Media Department of El Nilein University and Mohamed Saleh, graduate at the Faculty of Engineering of Khartoum University after they loudly denounced the absence of justice in Sudan.

Their colleague Mohamed Baggari stands accused of killing a senior member of the Islamist student wing of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), who was found dead at the Sharg El Nil College in Khartoum on 29 April. Clashes erupted at the college that day after militant NCP students attacked students attending a meeting of the Darfur Student Association.

A number of Darfuri students were detained, among them Baggari, who was then charged with the killing. He was first brought before a judge of the Khartoum Bahri Criminal Court on 14 May, without a defence lawyer present.

According to the DBA, the security forces verbally abused the students who attended the trial session on Wednesday.

The Darfur lawyers demand the immediate release of the two arrested students, as well as many other students still being held by the security apparatus.