Sudan: Detention of Abu Eisa, Madani extended for two weeks

A judge of a criminal court in Khartoum on Monday extended the detention of Sudan Appeal signatories Faroug Abu Eisa, head of the National Consensus Forces, and Dr Amin Mekki Madani, chairman of the Civil Society Initiative, for another two weeks.

With this decision, Judge El Sadig Dirar met the request by the prosecution to prolong the detention. The request was based on the non-completion of the investigations, though it referred to the fact that the two other defendants who signed the Sudan Appeal, El Sadig El Mahdi, chairman of the National Umma Party, and Minni Minni Minawi, head of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-MM), who remain abroad, have not yet been arrested.

The spokesman for the defence team, El Muiz Hadra, said in a statement on Monday that the head of the team, Omar Abdelaati, protested the delay in the investigations on the basis that it is not required to verify the authenticity of the defendants’ signatures, when they themselves have testified that they signed the political communiqué.

“The judge, however, extended the detentions, urging the prosecution to wind-up the investigations soon.”

In response to a request by the defence team to withdraw the criminal case against Abu Eisa and Madani, Minister of Justice Mohamed Bushara Dosa stated on Sunday that the charges cannot be lifted as the case concerns matters connected with the security, safety, and stability of the country.

According to the National Intelligence and Security Service, who filed the complaint against the opposition leaders, the signing of the Sudan Appeal constitutes the “undermining the constitutional order, and instigating war against the state, offences that carry the death penalty or life imprisonment.”

The prosecution is preparing a request for Interpol to issue an arrest warrant for El Mahdi and Minawi.