Dr Mudawi co-accused release delayed by Sudan security

The co-accused of human rights defender Dr Mudawi Ibrahim, Hafez Idris El Doma, has not been released from custody so far, despite the Republican decree by Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir to pardon him and four others. Dr Mudawi was released on Tuesday night.

The Darfur Bar Association told Radio Dabanga that two delegates went to the state security office to find out why El Doma has not been released with the others after he was handed over by the authorities to the state security prosecution under another complaint, according to the prosecution.

The Bar said eight other Darfuris are still in custody, including Abdel Hameed Abdallah and Unamid employee Adam Abdel Bari.

On Tuesday, one of the leaders of the Bar Association said the head of the state security prosecution service told them that the facts about Hafez's report will be reviewed and if found covered by the presidential pardon decision, he and the eight other detainees will be released within a day.

Yesterday the Bar leader reported from the state security prosecution expectation of the release of the 8 detainees within a day.

The Bar Association confirmed that they were awaiting release yesterday, “especially as the detainees have not committed what they should be held criminally accountable for and that their stay in prison represents a violation of their constitutional and legal rights.”

El Doma was arrested along with Dr Mudawi in December last year. Their detention prompted a chorus of condemnation for the highest levels of the international community including the United Nations and African Union.

In May, the prosecution charged Dr Mudawi and El Doma on six charges including ‘undermining the constitutional system’ and ‘waging war against the state', both of which carry either the death penalty or life imprisonment. All charges against them have now been dropped according to the pardon.

A terse statement on Tuesday night by the official Sudanese News Agency (SUNA) announced that Al Bashir “issued, Tuesday, a Republican decree pardoning the defendants in the criminal case No. (22/2017)”.