‘Five Darfuri students to face military court’: report

Five Darfuri students detained and arrested by Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) last month are reportedly to face a military court – the first application of a controversial new law. In a statement to Radio Dabanga, the Darfur Students’ Association has reported that the families of the five students, who are being detained at an unknown location, have been notified “anonymously by telephone” that the students are to be tried by military tribunal. If correct, this is the first reported application of amendments to the 2007 Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Act, passed by the Khartoum Parliament early this month, which critics have labelled “a return to a military regime”. As reported previously by Radio Dabanga, the amendments effectively allow military courts – which have far more arbitrary powers that civilian courts – to prosecute civilians for several crimes, including deserting military service, harbouring a fugitive, disclosing military information, using military uniforms, undermining the constitutional order, inciting war against the state, dealing with an enemy state, spying on the state, and allowing the escape of prisoners of war. “Neither the families nor their lawyers have yet been informed when or where the trials will take place,” the statement said. The five students are Ahmed Abdulrahman Al Tahe of Sudan University College of Music and Drama (level five); Mohamed Abdullah Al Abdulkarim of Sudan University College of Music (level four), Ibrahim Adam Haj of Al Neelain University School of Law (level two), the second Muawiya Adam Musa Ateem of Omdurman Islamic University, Faculty of Economics, (level three) and Ibrahim Musa Hassan of Omdurman Islamic University’s College of Medicine. Several lawyers and human rights activists have alleged that Darfuri students are being subjected to “a campaign of arbitrary arrests, racial discrimination, as well as torture and imprisonment for long periods.” They point out that “while the announcements by Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir to release all political prisoners included the coup leaders, and others like former presidential aide Sala Gosh, it did not include sons of marginalised areas, some of whom have spent more than a decade in prison”. File photo Related: ‘Amendments to Sudan’s Armed Forces Act unconstitutional’: Opposition (4 July 2013) Amendments to Sudan’s Army Law ‘return to a military regime’ (3 July 2013)Sudan ‘Security Services’ pluck student from university library (19 June 2013) ‘Student militiamen’ arrest 17 Darfuri students on university campus (17 June 2013)