The Sudanese Solidarity Committee with Detainees: ’88 political leaders still detained’

The Sudanese Solidarity Committee with Detainees announced the continued detention of 88 political leaders and activists, notably the secretary-general of the Communist Party of Sudan and the heads of the Sudanese Congress Party, the Unionist Hashd Party and the Islamic Wasat Party.

On Monday the head of the committee, Siddig Yousef, told a news conference in solidarity with the families of the detainees in Khartoum that his party has the lion's share in the recent arrests as 12 of the leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party have been arrested. The Sudanese Congress Party president Omar El Digeir, his deputy Khalid Silik, the head of the Unionist Hashd Party Siddig Abdeljabbar (Abu Fawaz), secretary-general Amin Saad, and the head of the Islamic Wasat Party, Yousef El Koda.

Listen to audio clip of press conference here (in Arabic)

Yousef said “these are the names we have but there are detainees whose names and conditions of detention are unknown, especially in the conflict areas of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.”

He ridiculed the play of the release of some of the detainees, especially leaders of the National Umma Party, women, and students, saying that the regime and its apparatus have tried to split and divide the opposition, which is impossible.

Also the Solidarity Committee with the Detainees launched a large campaign to raise funds for the families of the detainees and to face the financial fines imposed by the courts against journalists.

Yousef announced at the press conference that the committee had started consultations and contacts to expand the committee in terms of the financial donations campaign to face the financial fines imposed by the courts against journalists in the complaints he described as abusive.

Ramadan

He said that they would also be launching a campaign to face the rise of prices to provide the necessary requirements for the families of the detainees, especially that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is approaching.

He said that the transfer of some detainees to state prisons is a punishment for the families who have lost their breadwinners because of the detention for more than two months.

He explained that the large-scale arrest campaign was for the regime’s fear of the march of salvation run by the opposition.

Hayat Mekki, the wife of engineer Mustafa Abdo Dawad, said her husband was arrested from the street while waiting for transportation on January 31.

At the press conference yesterday she said that that her husband, who is over 70 years old, is suffering from critical health conditions in the spine core, back pain, and poor eyesight and demanded his release or fair trial.

She renewed the family's refusal to keep him detained without charge and held the authorities full responsibility for his safety and health.

The representative of the Committee of the Families of the detainees, Nourelhoda Abu Fawaz, said that the participation of all the members of the society in expressing an issue affecting any Sudanese is a legitimate right, but a duty and a national responsibility for everyone that should not be incriminated and imprisoned.

She stressed at the press conference that the peaceful expression of the issues and concerns of citizenship is a legitimate right guaranteed by all the international laws and norms and should not result in what happened to our people.

She described the conditions of detainees inside the prisons as very poor, this besides their families’ suffering of psychological, social and economic aspects.

She called for the immediate and urgent release of all the detainees in the regime's jails.

The secretary-general of the Republican Party, Asmaa Mahmoud Mohamed Taha described what has happened to the detainees as grievous unjustified injustice.

Yesterday she demanded that everyone stand up against the injustice inflicted on the hostages held by the authorities.

She promised to make more sacrifices for the Sudanese people, resist this injustice and not to remain silent until the release of the last hostage.