Sudan: Detained Dr Mudawi ‘charged with attempted suicide’

Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) has filed a suicide case against Dr Mudawi Ibrahim, who is currently being held at the Kober Prison in Khartoum North. His students announced a boycott of their studies for a week in protest against his detention.

Dr Ibrahim was detained on 7 December, together with his driver Adam El Sheikh from the campus of Khartoum University, where he lectures in engineering. He is also the founder and former director of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), which works on human rights, and sanitation and health issues.

He was held incommunicado, without being charged, at the NISS headquarters in Khartoum North until he was transferred to Kober Prison.

Dr Ibrahim embarked on a hunger strike on 22 January, demanding his release or being put to trial. He said that he, being detained, does not have any other means to protest his detention apart from refusing to eat.

Last Thursday, his relatives and lawyer were finally allowed to visit him. In a press conference at the headquarters of the National Umma Party in Omdurman on Saturday, they reported that they found him “clearly exhausted from the hunger strike”.

His wife, journalist Sabah Adam, said at the press conference that her husband will persist his hunger strike. She further reported that the NISS prosecutor told them on Thursday that a number of charges have been filed against him. Yet, the prosecutor did not explain the nature of the charges.

‘Attempted suicide’

In a statement issued on Saturday, the family reported that Ibrahim’s lawyer, Salwa Absam, has submitted a petition to the Ministry of Justice and the legal department of the NISS to allow him to be seen by his doctor.

The family further announced that the NISS has filed a charge of “attempted suicide” against him at the Justice Ministry, based on his hunger strike.

In the statement, Ibrahim’s relatives also say that so far they have attempted all “possible legal methods” for his release, the release of his driver, as well as his accountant, Nora Obeid.

Obeid, working at Dr Ibrahim’s Lamda Engineering Company, was held by security agents from outside the office on 13 December, reportedly after she updated her Facebook status with #FreeAdamElSheikh.

Boycott

The fifth-grade students of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Khartoum announced in a statement on Friday that they will boycott their studies for one week, starting today, in protest against the detention of their lecturer.

Last week, 26 Arab human rights organisations issued a statement as well, in which they call his detention “a violation of his right to live”.

Apart from demanding health care in prison, an investigation into the circumstances of his detention, alleged ill-treatment and torture, the organisations urge the Sudanese authorities to release Dr Ibrahim or give him a fair trial.