Detention of people in Sudan made prerogative of police and prosecution

Sudan’s Senior Public Prosecutor, Tajelsir El Hibir, issued a directive to security, police, and military forces in the country yesterday, prohibiting the detention of people except by the police and the prosecution.

“Officers who detain people without charges will be held accountable,” he said. The measure excludes members of the security apparatus in relation to violating their own regulations.

The move comes following three weeks of protest demanding the closure of the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) detention centres and calling for retribution for the killers of the young activist, Bahaeldin Nouri, who was tortured to death in an RSF detention centre in Omdurman on December 21.

On Sunday, these protests were broken up by the RSF and the security apparatus by “an excessive use of tear gas”, one of the protestors told Radio Dabanga.

On the same day the directive was announced, Resistance Committees active in the neighbourhoods of El Jereif East in Khartoum North reported that one of their members was abused during his brief detention by unknown security officers.

In a statement yesterday, the Resistance Committees said that “an unknown security force” held Mahmoud Mousa from the Bahri Central Bus Station on Wednesday evening.

They took him to an unknown destination. The next morning, Mousa was found in a bad condition at El Amel Square in Khartoum North.

The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), the driving force behind the December Revolution and protests demanding the closure of RSF and all other illegal detention centres, has previously demanded that all detainees must be released or transferred to police cells. Also, all RSF officers involved in the detention, torture and killing of Bahaeldin Nouri must be handed over to the prosecution for investigation, the SPA stated.

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