Lawyers officially request NISS to release Sudanese Congress Party members

A group of lawyers of the Sudanese Congress Party have handed a memorandum to the legal department of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), demanding the immediate release of prominent party members, detained on 19 July.

The party’s former chairman, Ibrahim El Sheikh, its political secretary, Abubakar Yousif, and a number of other prominent party members were held by NISS agents at a checkpoint in Jebel Awlia locality after they had visited hundreds of Darfuri students in Sheikh El Yagout village. 

The students were barred from entering Khartoum after they had collectively resigned from the Bakht El Rida University because of “unfair decisions” against their fellow students by the university administration.

Lawyer Hanan Hassan Khalifa told Radio Dabanga that the detention of the politicians violates the 2005 Interim Constitution, the freedom of expression, and the rights to practice political actions.

She explained that the memorandum dealt mainly with the reasons for the violations. “Arrest and detention are cases of the legal system, not of the NISS.”

The lawyer considers the request submitted to the NISS legal department “an important step to enhance the right of detainees to see a lawyer, even in security cases.

“The detention by the security apparatus clearly shows how the deep the justice and human rights crises in the country are,” she said.