Prosecutors recommend capital charges against Sudan Call heads

The State Security Prosecution service in Sudan as instructed that a complaint be filed against Imam El Sadig El Mahdi, the head of the National Umma Party (NUP) and newly-elected chairman of the opposition Sudan Call alliance “for dealing and coordinating with rebel armed movements to overthrow the regime.”

The Sudanese Security Services Centre said the move came after the National Intelligence and Service (NISS) submitted a petition to the State Security Prosecution against El Sadig El Mahdi and others.

The NISS was responding to threats of legal action against the alliance made by Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir since the conclusion of meetings of Sudan Call in Paris in March.

The NISS said that the High Prosecutor General Advisor Motasim Abdallah filed charges on sabotaging of the constitutional order, staging war, calling for opposition to the public authority by violence, and spying on the country, which is punishable by death, in addition to articles 5 and 6 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The NISS bases its complaint on “the signing of with the Revolutionary Front and the rebels the armed movements a Constitutional declaration, the issuing of a communiqué announcing the declaration of joint action, and coordination for the overthrow of the regime by force of arms”.

The Sudan Call alliance and the Sudanese Revolutionary Front condemned Al Bashir's speech before the Parliament in which he said he would never allow the combination of military action and political action against the state under any name.

Arko Minni Minnawi

In an interview with Radio Dabanga Arko Minni Minnawi, the head of the Sudan Liberation Front and the Revolutionary Front said: “We categorically reject these statements and will continue to cooperate with our brothers in Sudan Call alliance, the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, civil society and Sudanese citizens who want a solution to the complex Sudanese problem in various political, economic, security and social fields, especially after the situation has amounted to queues in banks, pumps, and cooking gas”.

He stressed that he believes that the solution lies in dialogue and negotiation which requires opening doors to avoid disaster in the homeland.

He said that Al Bashir's speech in Parliament “proved the decay of the regime, the narrowness of its horizons and inability to do anything in its last days. Al Bashir's speech poured out his anger against the political forces and even the university students. The man does not see further than the shadow of the International Criminal Court.”

Minnawi asks: “If Al Bashir allows the Syrians, the Bedouin in Kuwait, and the Afghan terrorists to work freely in Sudan in the drug trade, money laundering ,and the use the citizens of some African countries to act as mercenaries to kill civilians in Darfur, Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile, then why are Sudanese citizens in the country not allowed to engage, interact and deal with their political issues?”

He said that “Al Bashir does not want to allow anyone to express opinion”, citing what his regime has done with the unarmed civilians in Port Sudan, dam areas in the North, in Khartoum, Nyala, El Geneina and El Fasher September 2013 and the killing of civilians happening in Jebel Marra today.

Parliament

In the Parliament in Omdurman, the alliance of forces of change, which includes independent parliamentarians, criticised the threat by Al Bashir against the political forces allied with the armed movements.

Abu El Gasim Burtom, the head of the alliance of forces of change, said the President's call for peace and dialogue does not fit with the ongoing political arrests. He considered calling of the General Assembly for dialogue to discuss the permanent constitution as a wrong and not commensurate with the call for dialogue as the General Assembly does not represent all the political and civil forces.

He described the call as being closer to the constitutional amendment than drafting a permanent constitution.

The National Umma Party (NUP) led by Imam El Sadig El Mahdi described Al Bashir's speech in Parliament as “a sign of continuing to falsify political life and preventing any peaceful action and rejecting the policies of tyranny, starvation and empowerment”.

Yesterday the NUP said in a statement that “the party does not see anything new in this speech, but it is filled with false achievements that do not convince even the members of his ruling party.”

The NUP renewed in the statement its rejection of the intimidation of the political forces.

It stressed that it would stand firmly against the principle of monopolisation of power which caused great damage to political life and caused the poisoning of the general climate and no longer fit for decent living.

The party's statement appealed to the Sudanese people and all their political and civil forces to take a firm stand against the regime's threats to political life and put an end to abuses targeting the people's livelihood through wide solidarity campaigns and anti-regime movements against the corrupt policies.