Policemen acquitted from killing student protesters

The Sudanese minister of interior, Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamed, informed the parliament that the preliminary results of the investigation of the student demonstrations in Nyala last July, acquitted the police of killing demonstrators, Radio Dabanga has learned on Wednesday October 17.
The minister stated that the investigation committee has proven the policemen were not involved in killing student protesters in Nyala, nor did they use weapons or live ammunition to disperse the protesters.
He explained that the owner of a petrol station, which was burnt during the protests, acknowledged killing the five students when they set fire to his petrol station.
Lack of neutrality
Kamal Omar Abd al-Salam, a prominent Sudanese lawyer, told Radio Dabanga that the conducted investigation was biased in favor of the policemen, and provides security forces with a way to bypass the law. He added that such investigations call for international intervention because of the reluctance of the judicial apparatus in bringing the accused to trial.
The lawyer commented on the interior minister’s statement that “the police, ministry of interior and the ministry of justice are all one interface, which lacks any form of neutrality.”
He emphasized that this is one of the issues of the Sudanese judiciary system and its investigation committees, describing the committees as ‘one of the origins of the current political crisis in Sudan’, he added to Radio Dabanga from Khartoum.