Sudan court overturns murder conviction of Asim Omar after retrial

Today’s retrial of the Sudanese student activist Asim Omar, who was sentenced to death for killing a police officer, has resulted in the court acquitting him of the charges. His accusation that officers tortured him while in prison remain.

Asim Omar was arrested on May 2 2016 and accused of killing a police officer during protests at the University of Khartoum the previous month.

A series of court sessions, postponements, the sentence of death by hanging – a ruling which prompted hundreds of fellow students and SCP members to demonstrate near the court against the “unfair trial” – and Omar’s appeal, took nearly three years. In November, the lawyer representing Omar was assaulted after an appearance in the Khartoum Criminal Court North.

Today, Omar was found not guilty of killing the police officer.

Responding to the news, human rights organisation Amnesty International stated: “We join Asim’s family in celebrating this good news which comes as a huge relief after he was originally sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit.

Torture

“The authorities must however conduct an independent and effective investigation into allegations that he was tortured in prison. Though Asim has been acquitted, justice can only truly be done once the officials responsible for his ill-treatment are held to account, and he has been provided with appropriate redress for his injuries and imprisonment,” concluded Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

Omar alleges that he was severely beaten by guards while in prison, sustaining injuries to one of his legs, his genitals, and his ears that rendered him incapable of appearing in court for one of the sessions.

For months, he had been held incommunicado and reportedly ill-treated. In January 2018, the student started a hunger strike in the Kober prison in Khartoum to protest the prison administration’s decision to continuously shackle him.

Speaking to Radio Dabanga, Wifag Gurashi, a leading member of the Independent Student Congress Party, visited Omar in Kober Prison several months ago. She said that he suffers from “an injury to his right eye, a kind of paralysis of the facial muscles, loss of hearing in one of his ears, and a loss of balance, in addition to injuries on his entire body after he was severely beaten-up by police guards in his cell.

Gurashi said that Omar’s injuries have been ignored. “He has not seen a doctor in time, which aggravated his health condition.”

Joan Nyanyuki, Amnesty International’s regional director: “The Sudanese authorities must review laws that allow for the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, notably by the National Intelligence and Security Services and the police.”