Witness: ‘Sudan security sodomised slain teacher with stick’

A man who was detained with teacher Ahmed El Kheir, who died last week while in the custody of Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in Kassala, has testified to prosecutors that he saw agents sodomise El Kheir with a stick.

El Tayeb Suleiman, who was detained with Ahmed El Kheir against the backdrop of demonstrations on January 31, has testified under oath that he saw the security agents ask the teacher to remove his trousers. “When he resisted, two of the security men lifted him and put a stick into his anus.”

Suleiman said that the victim did not receive anything in the detention centre except for a little water. The witness said in a video that he and others testified about the killing of teacher Ahmed El Kheir under oath before the chief prosecutor in Kassala, the local head of the security apparatus, and the police chief of Kassala state.

‘Food poisoning’

Ahmed El Kheir, a teacher from Khashm El Girba in Kassala, was allegedly tortured to death by the NISS after agents took him from his house in Khashm El Girba. His arrest came against the backdrop of demonstrations on January 31.

Following the death, the police director and head of the security committee in Kassala State, Mohamed Yasin, said the teacher felt sick during interrogation at the NISS detention centre. A doctor confirmed his death at the detention centre, after which his body was sent to the mortuary and his family notified.

The Kassala state’s Security Committee and police issued a subsequent statement alleging that El Kheir died of food poisoning.

However, the dead teacher’s brother, Saad El Kheir, said that the family received the body with signs of torture and beatings over his entire body: “The hands, the stomach, the back, the kidneys, and the anus showed signs of bruising.” His sister, speaking to El Arabiya, confirmed that El Kheir’s body showed signs of sexual assault.

On Monday, teachers carried out a protest in front of the Kassala Courts Complex, to publicly condemn the killing of El Kheir.

On Tuesday, the Sudanese Teachers Committee organised a large protest in front of the Ministry of Education in Khartoum, demanding the overthrow of the regime and condemning the killing of the eastern Sudanese teacher under torture in the cells of the security apparatus in Khashm El Girba.

Security forces dispersed the protest by excessive violence using tear gas, electric wires and batons, and arrested a number of teachers.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Sudanese Teachers Committee said that the security forces seized a pregnant teacher and threw her with force inside a Hilux.

The Teachers Committee demanded in an open memorandum to the federal and state education ministers to release all detained teachers and bring those involved in the killing of teacher Ahmed El Kheir to trial.

Secondary school teachers in Khashm El Girba, who took part in a strike since Sunday have conditioned lifting their strike with handing over those involved in the torture of El Kheir to the judicial authorities.

The teachers handed over a memorandum to the Kassala state governor stating that they would only lift the strike after handing over those involved in El Kheir’s assassination to the judicial authorities, the state and locality government's acknowledgment of the heinous crime, the state police chief’s apology for his statement about the crime and providing procedural immunity for the teachers to be arrested only by their direct administration.