Release of Sudanese human rights defender cancelled

The Sudanese Attorney General has cancelled a decision to release human rights defender Dr Mudawi Ibrahim.

Dr Ibrahim, a university professor and founder of the Sudan Social Development Organisation (SUDO) was detained by agents of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) from his office at the University of Khartoum on 7 December last year.

After having been held incommunicado at a NISS detention site, he was transferred to Kober Prison in Khartoum North. No charges have been pressed against him.

By the end of March 2017, his lawyer Nabil Adib said the court had issued a decision to release his client on bail. But his family at the time expressed concern over the possible intervention of the NISS to keep him in detention.

On Friday, Adib told Sudan Tribune that the general attorney has cancelled its decision to release his client. “I have not seen the reasons for the decision and will try to see the merits on Sunday,” he said. “I learned that the decision ordered further investigations. It seems that a hidden motivation triggered this measure.”

According to Sudan Tribune a media outlet, close to the ruling National Congress Party, claimed earlier this year that Dr Ibrahim is involved in an Amnesty International report released last year on the use of chemical weapons in Darfur’s Jebel Marra.   

Awarded

In 2005, the Dublin-based Front Line Defenders awarded Dr Ibrahim with the Front Line Award. The award was presented to his wife and daughter by the President of Ireland in Dublin on 13 May, as Dr Ibrahim was in detention in Khartoum after having been arrested for the third time in eighteen months on 9 May. He was released again a week later.

Dr Ibrahim won the Human Rights First Award in the same year. In 2012, he was awarded the Jonas Weiss Prize “for his work against the abuse, killings and displacement of peoples in Darfur and other human rights violations in Sudan”.

During the 2014 Front Line Defenders Ceremony in Dublin, Dr Ibrahim gave a speech in which he also elaborated on his previous detentions. On their website, Front Line Defenders call for the release of and support for the human rights defender.