Sudan opposition leaders still held incommunicado

The Committee of Solidarity with the Victims of the September Demonstrations handed the National Human Rights Commission in Khartoum a memorandum on Sunday, demanding the release of the political detainees in Sudan, in particular the prominent lawyers Faroug Abu Eisa and Dr Amin Mekki Madani, who are still held incommunicado by the security apparatus. Police and security forces prevented members of the Committee to hold a sit in front of the Ministry of Justice this morning. Siddig Yousef, chairman of the Solidarity Committee told Radio Dabanga that the Committee stressed in the memorandum that the detentions are contrary to Sudanese laws and the Constitution. Police and security forces halted a sit-in organised by the Solidarity Committee in front of the Ministry of Justice in Khartoum this morning. Representatives of the Committee were not allowed to hand their memorandum to the Minister of Justice. Yousef stressed that the ongoing detentions by the security apparatus will not stop the opposition parties’ efforts to overthrow this regime. No contact The defence lawyers of Abu Eisa, chairman of the National Consensus Forces (a coalition of opposition parties), Dr Madani, head of the Civil Society Initiative, Farah El Agar and Mohamed El Doud, legal consultants of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, have expressed concern about their fate, and in particular the health of Abu Eisa and Madani. Both are diabetic. Abu Eisa has cyanosis. Madani suffers from high blood pressure. Sati El Haj, member of the defence team, told Radio Dabanga that the security apparatus is still refusing to allow visitors to the detainees, and expressed serious concern over their health conditions.  “Nobody knows where they are held, and how they are treated.” He said that at various places in Sudan, people are organising sit-ins, calling for their release. “At national, regional, and international levels, efforts are made to pressure the regime to release the political detainees.” On 6 December, Abu Eisa and Madani, were detained by security officers inside their homes in Khartoum, a day after they had returned from Addis Ababa, where they had signed the Sudan Appeal, a political communiqué calling for regime change. El Agar and El Doud were detained on the same day. Their defence team has submitted a memorandum to several legal and political institutions in Sudan, demanding the detainees’ immediate release. Photo: Part of a poster calling for the “release of the country”, picturing Madani (L), El Agar (C), and Abu Eisa (R) Related: UN commissioner worried over health of detained Sudanese politicians (12 December 2014)