Press Release

SHRO-Cairo Asks Government to Investigate the Role of Minister of Interior in Extrajudicial Killings

March 21, 2002

In an interview with A-Sharq Al-Awsat published today, the minister of interior stated that the newly enacted law of criminal procedure as issued by the president of the republic, instead of the regime's national council, cancelled the establishment of a police special force to help process criminal cases by the attorney general's chamber as earlier included in the abrogated criminal law 1991.

The minister assumed that the new amended law recognizes the chamber's authority with respect to prosecution and criminal investigation. Police officers will have to submit investigation reports on criminal cases to the chamber. The new law, however, increased the powers of a police officer to include the use of firearms to stop armed robbery, as well as unlawful assembly without a prior permission from a judicial authority.

SHRO-Cairo is gravely concerned about the new amendments of the law because they reduce the chamber's supervisory powers over the criminal investigation and prosecution of the police officers. The new amendments increase the power of the minister of interior, who is not a judicial authority, to intervene in police attorney-related activities.

What is more striking is the authority allowed to the police force (and the minister of interior) to supervise over the use of firearms, instead of the judicial powers that guarantee more neutrality and control over executives use of firearms to disperse a public assembly

The minister’s illustration of both armed robbery and public assemblies as one target for the use of firearms indicates the willful intention of the president of state and his minister of interior to undermine the few sureties available to curb executive assault on the public freedom of expression.

The minister put the blame of the murders his government committed against the prisoners of the Kober Prison on issues that are not related to the extra-judicial killings of the innocent prisoners. The over crowdedness of prisons and the construction of a new prison are not reasons for killing prisoners by a police armed force as he shamelessly admitted.

SHRO-Cairo condemns in the strongest terms the new amendments of the criminal law that make of the executives (president of republic, minister and police force) a higher authority over the due process of justice and judicial supervision.

The Organization asks the government to restore strong judicial authority, supervision, and control of the use of firearms in accordance with international norms to insure the safety of the public and the freedom of expression.

SHRO-Cairo notes with grave concern that the existing minister of interior has been accused of direct involvement in the extra-judicial killings of army officers in the April/Ramadan 1990 massacres of army officers and non-commissioned officers. The Organization continues to urge the government to undertake a judicial investigation on these brutal crimes.

The Organization urges the Attorney General’s’ Chamber and the Judiciary of Sudan to open a thorough investigation into the extra-judicial killings of the Kober prison to determine the role played by the same minister of interior in the use of firearms inside the prison which is a civil protected institution. All accused regardless of the position they continue to hold must be put to trial before the independent and fair judiciary.