Press Release

FEBRUARY 19, 2005

Increasing needs to abrogate the emergency, criminal, and public order laws

The Sudan Human Rights Organization Cairo Office is gravely concerned for the continuous enforcement of non-democratic restrictions on the daily life of people by the Emergency Law, Criminal Law, and the Public Order Act, despite the ongoing negotiations between the government and opposition groups to strengthen the peace process and the transition to democratic rule by a principled adherence to the international human rights norms and the rule of law.

Reports recently received by the Office indicate that the public order police and other security forces pursued harsh measures on citizens under the criminalizing provisions of emergency law, the public order act, and the criminal code. Being arrested without information at the time of the arrest of the reasons for arrest the victimized persons have been seriously deprived of the right to liberty and security of the person. Most of the accused persons were further brought to prompt trials by the public order judges, and then sentenced with heavy fines, imprisonment, or both. None of the persons victimized by such courts were ever compensated, as clearly required by international norms.

Despite enormous difficulties inhibiting necessary access to the public order police or court files, due to strict orders by both police authorities and judges, as additional violation of the law of evidence and the human rights of the accused, several public order police commanders and the junior judge, U. A. ‘Abd-Allah, have been repeatedly mentioned in the reports recently received by the Organization because they authorized cases of arbitrary arrest and the detention of detainees in poor conditions, as well as heavy fines inflicted by court decision.

The reports mentioned, among others, recent trials in the city of Medani of the public order case no. 4737 dated November 17, 2004 (tried by SL500,000 fine or imprisonment for 2 months in the case of default); case no. 4417 dated October 10, 2004 (SL 100,000 fine or imprisonment for one month); case no. 4464 dated October 10,2004 (SL200,000 fine or imprisonment for 2 months); case no. 4461 dated October 25, 2004 (40 floggings; SL50,000 fine or imprisonment for one month); case no. 1496 dated March 29, 2004 (SL100,000 fine or three months imprisonment in default); and case no. 2214 dated May 16,2004 (100 floggings).

The prompt trials failed to provide fair chances to the accused persons with regard to the right to legal consultation, defense witnesses, cross-examination, etc. The accused persons were all, women or men, citizens with meager financial resources; thus they were virtually unable to pay the fines.

The criminal justice of Sudan is seriously disabled by non-democratic procedures and the lack of professional training, as well as grave violations of international human rights norms, especially the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights and the Code of Ethics for Law-Enforcement Officials, among many others.

SHRO-Cairo asks the Sudan police, judges, and courts to respect the human dignity of citizens, and the right of the accused to have decent investigation and fair trial, regardless of the criminalizing provisions of the country’s enforceable laws.

To enhance the process of peace and the transition to democratic rule, SHRO-Cairo urges the Sudan Government, peace partners, and the other negotiating parties to:

· End the state of emergency law;

· Abrogate the Public Order Act;

· Apply the 1974 penal law and criminal procedure;

· Ensure the human rights of detainees and the other accused persons; and

· Compensate the victimized citizens with reference to the cases reported in this release.