Relatives of slain Sudanese protesters demand international investigation

Families of demonstrators killed over the past weeks in and around Khartoum are demanding the formation of an international committee to investigate the circumstances of the deaths of their relatives. One of the parents of a victim told Radio Dabanga that family members of slain protesters are forming a committee with the intention to resort to international tribunals for justice. The families compiled a list of 175 people killed during the demonstrations in Sudan’s capital Khartoum. Dr Faroug Mohamed Ibrahim, the head of the Sudanese Organisation for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms, explained to Radio Dabanga that his Organisation is prepared to support the families in their call for an international investigation committee. Ibrahim added that he has advised relatives of detainees and missing persons to publish the names of their “missing sons and daughters” and to demand to know the places where they are detained. 250 killed  300 Sudanese medical doctors working in the United Kingdom presented a memorandum to the British government, stating that the death toll of the demonstrations in Sudan has reached 250 and that access to hospitals was denied to injured protesters. Files missing The Criminal Court of the Haj Yousif district in Khartoum North on Sunday indicted 16 out of the 35 protesters arrested during the recent demonstrations. 19 of them pleaded not guilty. Activist Dr Samar Mirghani, accused of filming a demonstration, found to her surprise that the file with charges against her “had not arrived at the court”. Her lawyer Hanan Hassan told Radio Dabanga that on Sunday morning she and Dr Mirghani went to the Haj Yousif court, where they discovered that the file with charges had not been sent to the court, nor was there a public prosecutor present for her case.   Dr Samar Mirghani has accused the security forces of torturing her by severely beating her on different parts of her body. She was insulted and hit with rifle butts until she lost consciousness after she was arrested for filming a demonstration and the shooting of a young protester. Dr Mirghani is a pharmacist and the second Sudanese woman to talk openly about the abusive practices of the security services against detained demonstrators. Rania el Mamoun openly accused the police of threatening to rape her, hitting her all over her body, and “locking her up in an improper place”. File photo: A demonstration in Shambaat, Khartoum North