Three young Darfuris at risk of amputation of right hand

Three young Darfuri men are at risk of a court-ordered amputation of the right hand, after being convicted of theft in an unfair trial at a court in El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, according to the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS).

In a statement on Monday, the African Centre reported that the three convicted men are secondary school students of the Abu Zar camp for the displaced in El Geneina locality.

Mohamed Hassan Abdallah Mohamed (19), Daoud Yousef Mohamed Hassan, and Mohamed Omar Abdallah Ismail, both aged 20, from the Masalit tribe, were found guilty of stealing SDG56,000 ($9,400) at El Geneina Criminal Court on 12 April.

They were convicted under articles 21 (joint acts of Criminal Conspiracy), and article 171 (Penalty of Capital Theft) of the 1991 Sudanese Penal Code which provides for the penalty of amputation of the right hand from the wrist.

“The men were convicted and sentenced to the amputations without legal representation, in breach of Sudanese and international fair trial and human rights standards,” the statement reads. “Article 135(3) of the 1991 Sudanese Criminal Procedure Act requires the Sudanese Ministry of Justice to appoint a defence lawyer for any person accused of an offence that carries a punishment of 10 years or more imprisonment, amputation, or death.”

On 5 may, the three men were transferred to Kober prison in Khartoum North for the implementation of the penalty.

El Geneina prison authorities reportedly submitted an appeal to the West Darfur Appeal Court.

The ACJPS stated that these penalties “breach the absolute prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or treatment that Sudan has committed to as a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Sudan’s own Interim National Constitution of 2005 prohibits torture and commits to securing the rights and freedoms set out in international treaties to which Sudan is a party.”

It added that in 2012, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which monitors state compliance with the African Charter, called on Sudan to “urgently abolish” all forms of corporal punishment, expressing concern that “Sudan’s laws provide for several forms of corporal punishment, including stoning, amputation, cross-amputation and whipping”, contrary to article 5 of the African Charter.

In its statement, the African Centre calls on the Sudanese government to “commute these and all corporal punishment sentences; uphold the right of the accused to receive a fair trial, and have adequate legal representation in accordance with Sudanese and international law”, and “immediately stop imposing amputations, and all other forms of corporal punishment, such as stoning and flogging, and bring Sudanese laws in line with Sudan’s international law commitments to prohibit torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Implementations

The last known implementation of an amputation penalty was in February 2013, when government doctors amputated a man’s right hand and left foot by court order in Khartoum in February 2013. Reliable sources informed ACJPS that medical doctors at the Sudanese Ministry of Interior’s El Rabat Hospital carried out what is called cross-amputation on 30-year-old Adam El Musna, following his conviction and sentencing for an armed robbery.

The following month, ACJPS documented a case in which three men were convicted of Capital Theft, and sentenced at the El Fasher Criminal Court in North Darfur, without legal representation to amputation of the right hand.

The men were accused of stealing cooking oil worth SDG14,700 ($3,300) from a factory in the north Darfur capital in December 2012. After the conviction, their families instructed a lawyer who submitted a successful appeal to the North Darfur Appeal Court. The amputation penalty was overturned. and they were sentenced to five years in prison.

Until 2013, human rights groups had hoped that a de facto moratorium on the implementation of amputation sentences was in place, as there had been no reported cases since 2001. However on 11 March 2013, Sudan’s then Deputy Chief Justice, Abdelrahman Sharafi, held a press conference boasting that 16 amputation sentences had been carried out since 2001.

Click here for the full ACJPS report