Mohamed Abdalla El Doma
March 31, 2018
HE Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir
Office of the President
People’s Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
email- info@presidency.gov.sd
Idris Ibrahim Jameel
Ministry of Justice
PO Box 302, Al Nil Avenue
Khartoum, Sudan
Email- moj@moj.gov.sd
Gen. Dr. Hamid Manan Mohamed
Minister of Interior
Email: ministry@mfa.gov.sd
Your Excellency:
Re: Detention of Mohamed Abdallah El Doma, Mohammed Al-Hadiz and Saleh Mahmoud
Lawyers Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) is a committee of lawyers, students and academics who campaign internationally for advocacy rights, advocates in danger, and on rule of law issues. We also engage in legal research and education about international human rights law. I am a lawyer and a partner of a law firm in Canada, Cohen Highley LLP, and I am writing to you to ask that you intervene with respect to proceedings involving the above named individuals.
On January 17, 2018, Mohamed Abdallah El Doma, the co-vice-president of the National Umma Party (NUP) and the chairman of the Darfur Bar Association, was arrested in Omdurman.
On February 1, 2018. Saleh Mahmoud, a lawyer and human rights defender as well as a member of the Central Committee of the Sudanese Communist Party, was arrested from his office in Khartoum.
Mohammed Al-Hafiz, a lawyer, was arrested in Khartoum at approximately 9:30 PM when security forces raided a meeting of opposition leaders.
The whereabouts of these men, along with roughly 40 others, is unknown. They have no access to counsel or family. They have not been formally charged with anything. They have been held incommunicado; denied access to medicine; subjected to torture, harsh conditions, verbal abuse and physical abuse.
We are concerned about the prolonged detention, in most cases incommunicado, of individuals under NISS custody feared to have been abused or at risk of abuse as well as those of advanced age with serious health conditions. The lack of access to lawyers and family members for the detainees, together with the well-documented use by the NISS of torture and other forms of ill-treatment against detainees, particularly whilst held in unknown locations, gives rise to serious concerns for their safety.
LRWC urges the authorities of Sudan to do the following:
- immediately disclose the fate and whereabouts of Mohamed Abdallah El Doma, Saleh Mahmoud and Mohammed Al-Hafiz;
- make public the reasons for their continued detention if in custody and, unless a legal basis for continued detention can be demonstrated, release them without delay;
- ensure that Mohamed Abdallah El Doma, Saleh Mahmoud and Mohammed Al-Hafiz are not subjected to torture and other ill-treatment while in detention; and,
- grant Mohamed Abdallah El Doma, Saleh Mahmoud and Mohammed Al-Hafiz access to adequate medical care, access to a lawyer of his own choosing, and allow visits from family members.
We would be obliged if you would give this serious matter your immediate attention and implement the four steps set out above.
Yours Very Truly,
Joe Hoffer
Sudan Monitor, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada
