Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Sunday have released a number of graduates of the University of Khartoum after nearly two months of detention without charge.
Amnesty International and Human Right Watch denounced the arbitrary detention of peaceful protesters and called to release them. Different reports said they their families and lawyers had no access, increasing risks of torture.Mohmed Farouk Suleiman, Murtada Habani, Ibrahim Abu Samra and Ahmed Zuhair have been released on Sunday. The four were detained last April after taking part in demonstrations to protest the relocation of the historical university to construct touristism and business buildings.
Dozens of students mostly from the University of Khartoum and activists are still in jail since last April.
Reports say the detainees are held at the NISS office near the Shendi bus station in Khartoum North. However it was also reported that some of them are being held in unrevealed locations.
The Sudanese authorities accuse the protesters of being connected to opposition and rebel groups, saying they seek to mobilise protests to bring down the regime of President Omer al-Bashir.
Minister of Justice Awad al Nur al-Hassan Sunday refused to comment on the detention without charge of the student and activists.
Also, Interior Minister Ismat Abdel Rahman distanced himself from the issue; saying they are arrested by the NISS which is directly attached to the Sudanese presidency.
Last Wednesday families of arrested students handed over a memorandum to the minister of higher education and the university’s vice chancellor, calling for their immediate release.
The letter which is co-signed by the graduates’ association and student lawyers, also called to cancel the dismissal of six students and the two-year suspension of for 11 other students accused to orchestrating the protests against the sale of the university building.
Sudan Tribune
