Lawyers: 870 cases referred to Sudan’s new Emergency Courts

The Democratic Lawyers Alliance reported on Friday that the Sudanese authorities have transferred 870 people to Emergency Courts in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North, on charges of participating in demonstrations.

The alliance reported that 400 people have been referred to the Emergency Court in Omdurman, 70 to Emergency Courts in Khartoum North and 400 to the Emergency Courts in Khartoum.

The establishment of the Emergency Courts was announced last week by Chief Justice Abdelmajid Idris. Attorney General, Omar Ahmed Mohamed, issued a decree for the establishment of emergency prosecution offices in Khartoum state and all the Sudan’s other states, in accordance with his authorities and in compliance with the General Prosecution Act for the year 2017.

The Emergency Courts are to deal with cases related to the State of Emergency proclaimed in Sudan last week. The first trials in the courts began on Thursday.

Convictions

Dozens of lawyers volunteered to defend scores of protesters. The Emergency Courts in Khartoum issued sentences to write-off a large number of complaints, convicted dozens, and imposed financial penalties against them with an alternative prison sentence in case of non-payment of the fines.

The courts handed-down sentences of between one and two weeks’ imprisonment against a number of people.

The statement of the Democratic Lawyers Alliance pointed out that the Emergency Court of El Imtidad in Khartoum headed by Judge Abdallah Abdelbagi sentenced six people to three years’ imprisonment after conviction on charges of demonstrating and a five-year sentence against an Eritrean together with deportation from the country on the same charge.

The lawyers described the sentence as unfair, arbitrary and is considered as a teargas.

The alliance said that the emergency prosecutor must exercise his powers to take the knowledge of the crime if found in his office in accordance with the law and professional norms, not to exercise his work with the forces of security repression or direct accusations against those arrested and transfer them from the streets to the courts in Omdurman. According to the statement, the emergency courts continued in Omdurman and Khartoum until 11 pm on Thursday.

Some people were released with bail and a trial date was set for Sunday.