Solidarity for JEM hunger strikers in Sudanese prisons
Prisoners in Omdurman, El Fasher, and Port Sudan are reportedly entering the fourth day of a hunger strike begun on Monday. The strike was apparently called “out of solidarity” with members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who are being detained in Khartoum North Common Prison (also known as Kober prison). As reported by Radio Dabanga earlier this month, the JEM detainees began a hunger strike on 12 August, protesting what they described as “cruel treatment” by prison warders. The former head of JEM intelligence, Abdel Aziz Usher, was allegedly moved to the death row solitary confinement block. JEM spokesman Jibril Adam Bilal told Radio Dabanga that “three of the detainees, Mohamed Jibril Abdel Mawla, Mohamed Hassan Osman, and Sadiq Adam Abdullah, have now also been transferred to solitary confinement on death row in Kober prison,” adding that “the prison administration has imposed a harsh regime on the men, including manacles to their hands and feet”. He added that his movement “holds Khartoum responsible for any harm that befalls the detainees”. Jibril highlighted that “there are more than 13,500 prisoners from the marginalised regions of Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Nuba Mountains incarcerated in Khartoum alone”. He underscored that “there are tens of thousands more suffering severe conditions in the prisons of El Obeid, Kadugli, Nyala, El Fasher, Damazin, and Port Sudan”. Sudanese Association for Defending Rights and Freedom (SADRF) has appealed to the authorities to respond to the demands of the prisoners. As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, Sudanese courts sentenced about 70 JEM members, including Usher, to death after an attack they mounted on Khartoum in May 2008. None of the condemned rebels has been executed, but Khartoum has refused to free them within the framework of a goodwill agreement providing for exchange prisoners under the auspices of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur. Only a few were released under pressure from the mediation and Qatari government which facilitated the talks.Blue Nile detainees Separately, sources have reported that the Special Criminal Court of Sinja in Sennar state on Tuesday sentenced three Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N) members to prison terms. They are three of the 85 ‘Blue Nile defendants’, who were arrested following heavy fighting between rebel forces of the (SPLM-N) and pro-government militias in Blue Nile state in September 2011. Alsir Zaki and Abdullah Zein Rajeb were reportedly sentenced to nine years, while Musa Jahallah was sentenced to seven years, and the court ordered release of his vehicle. File photo Related: JEM detainees on hunger strike in Sudanese prison (15 August)Sudan transfers JEM prisoners to death row: Rebels (17 June 2013)Witnesses heard for some of Sudan’s ‘Blue Nile defendants’ but 79 still not tried: HUDO (17 June 2013)JEM warns against threats to prisoners in Omdurman (5 May 2012)
Prisoners in Omdurman, El Fasher, and Port Sudan are reportedly entering the fourth day of a hunger strike begun on Monday. The strike was apparently called “out of solidarity” with members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) who are being detained in Khartoum North Common Prison (also known as Kober prison).
As reported by Radio Dabanga earlier this month, the JEM detainees began a hunger strike on 12 August, protesting what they described as “cruel treatment” by prison warders. The former head of JEM intelligence, Abdel Aziz Usher, was allegedly moved to the death row solitary confinement block.
JEM spokesman Jibril Adam Bilal told Radio Dabanga that “three of the detainees, Mohamed Jibril Abdel Mawla, Mohamed Hassan Osman, and Sadiq Adam Abdullah, have now also been transferred to solitary confinement on death row in Kober prison,” adding that “the prison administration has imposed a harsh regime on the men, including manacles to their hands and feet”.
He added that his movement “holds Khartoum responsible for any harm that befalls the detainees”.
Jibril highlighted that “there are more than 13,500 prisoners from the marginalised regions of Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Nuba Mountains incarcerated in Khartoum alone”. He underscored that “there are tens of thousands more suffering severe conditions in the prisons of El Obeid, Kadugli, Nyala, El Fasher, Damazin, and Port Sudan”.
Sudanese Association for Defending Rights and Freedom (SADRF) has appealed to the authorities to respond to the demands of the prisoners.
As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, Sudanese courts sentenced about 70 JEM members, including Usher, to death after an attack they mounted on Khartoum in May 2008.
None of the condemned rebels has been executed, but Khartoum has refused to free them within the framework of a goodwill agreement providing for exchange prisoners under the auspices of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur. Only a few were released under pressure from the mediation and Qatari government which facilitated the talks.
Blue Nile detainees
Separately, sources have reported that the Special Criminal Court of Sinja in Sennar state on Tuesday sentenced three Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – North (SPLM-N) members to prison terms.
They are three of the 85 ‘Blue Nile defendants’, who were arrested following heavy fighting between rebel forces of the (SPLM-N) and pro-government militias in Blue Nile state in September 2011.
Alsir Zaki and Abdullah Zein Rajeb were reportedly sentenced to nine years, while Musa Jahallah was sentenced to seven years, and the court ordered release of his vehicle.
File photo
Related:
JEM detainees on hunger strike in Sudanese prison (15 August)
Sudan transfers JEM prisoners to death row: Rebels (17 June 2013)
Witnesses heard for some of Sudan’s ‘Blue Nile defendants’ but 79 still not tried: HUDO (17 June 2013)
JEM warns against threats to prisoners in Omdurman (5 May 2012)
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