Sudan security raids opposition party HQ in West Kordofan

Elements of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) raided the headquarters of the Sudanese Congress Party (SCP) in En Nahud, West Kordofan, on Friday evening. “Heavily armed security troops stormed the party’s headquarters at about 9pm on Friday, and broke up the gathering of the National Advocacy Committee for Ibrahim El Sheikh, the president of the SCP. Six participants were detained,” SCP’s Political Secretary, Mastour Ahmed, told Radio Dabanga on Sunday. “The security forces took them to their office in En Nahud, and tortured them for three continuous hours, after which they turned them over to the police department in the centre of En Nahud.”“Mustafa Ali was released, but Saeed Suleiman Saeed, Abdel Aziz Ahmed Abdel Aziz, Abulgais Abulgasim Ibrahim, Abdel Munim Yousif El Khidir, and El Deif El Zein Ali were kept in custody.” Release of political prisonersThe National Advocacy Committee for Ibrahim El Sheikh has called for El Sheikh’s immediate release, as well as the release of all political prisoners, in a press statement released on Saturday.The Advocacy Committee stated that it agrees with El Sheikh’s opinion about the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commanded by the NISS: “The RSF militias are unconstitutional.” The Committee holds the RSF fully responsible for “the human rights abuses as witnessed in the acts of murder and rape, and the pillaging and burning of villages in Darfur and Kordofan”.“Any political leader has the right to freely express his opinion on the issue,” the statement said. Detained opposition leaderRadio Dabanga reported on Sunday that a delegation of the Committee arrived in En Nahud on Friday afternoon. The delegation existed, among others, of Maryam El Sadig El Mahdi, deputy chairwoman of the National Umma Party; Siddig Yousif, a leading communist and spokesman for the National Consensus Forces; Mohamed Abdallah El Doma, chairman of the Darfur Bar Association; and El Bagir El Afifi , director of the El Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment and Human Development in Khartoum, closed by NISS on 31 December 2012. On 8 June, SCP president, Ibrahim El Sheikh was taken by the security service from his home in En Nahud. He was charged with undermining the Constitution, after he had publicly denounced the widespread attacks by the RSF on civilians in Darfur and Kordofan. File photo: Citizens in En Nahud protest against the detention of the SCP leader, 12 June 2014 (Radio Dabanga correspondent) Related:Activists visit opposition leader detained in West Kordofan (6 July 2014)Arab Coalition for Sudan condemns closure of women’s centre (1 July 2014) En Nahud detainees transferred, newspapers seized in Sudan (1 July 2014) More opposition leaders detained in West Kordofan (30 June 2014) Sudan’s political detainees in West Kordofan continue strike (27 June 2014) Sudanese Congress Party leaders detained (9 June 2014)