‘Detainees in Sudan’s Kober prison without knowledge of management’

Detainees are being held by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) at the federal Kober prison in Khartoum North without the knowledge of the prison’s management. The director of Kober prison, Maj. Gen. Omar Abdel Majid Ali, told the Sudanese parliament on Sunday that there are no people held in the prison under the security law, “at least not under the responsibility of the management”. Answering questions of parliamentarians, the director said that “Yes, there are people detained at Kober prison without my knowledge. The registered prisoners were transferred to Kober by court verdicts.” “Kober prison currently holds 1,442 prisoners,” the director explained, “while it has a capacity of 500.” He confirmed the continued detention of members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), including rebel leader Abdel Aziz Nur Ashur. “They are waiting for the regular renewal procedure of their custody.” A number of JEM rebels were detained after they had invaded Omdurman, the twin-city of Khartoum, on 10 May 2008. By April 2009, 82 accused of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons, including senior commanders, were sentenced to death by hanging. By November 2009, the number of JEM members sentenced to death had crossed 100. File photo: Political detainees released from Kober prison in April 2013 (Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters) Related:Darfur rebels commemorate 2008 ‘Battle of Omdurman’ (12 May 2014) JEM prisoners transferred to isolation cells, Sudan (7 March 2014)