URGENT ACTION

105 PEOPLE FACING DEATH SENTENCES IN SUDAN

Two alleged members of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), an armed opposition group based in the Darfur region in western Sudan, have been sentenced to death for their alleged participation in an attack on Sudan's capital, Khartoum. This brings to 105 the total number of individuals sentenced to death in connection with the attack.

Two men, Abdullah Ali Adam and Al-Murdi Bakheet,were sentenced to death on 19 January 2010 by special counter-terrorism courts that were established following the attack on Khartoum in May 2008.

A total of 106 death sentences have been passed by these special courts since July 2008. All those convicted, all male, are held in Kober prison in Khartoum. One man who had been among those sentenced died of tuberculosis in prison in 2009. All those previously convicted have lodged an appeal against their death sentences. Abdullah Ali Adam and Al-Murdi Bakheet now have a week to lodge their appeals.

All those sentenced to death were found guilty of crimes such as membership of a terrorist organisation (allegedly the JEM) and waging war against the state. The 106 men’s trials were unfair; while most were tortured and otherwise ill-treated, many had their confessions extracted under torture and many of the accused did not have access to a lawyer until their trial began.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English, Arabic or your own language:

- calling on the authorities to ensure that no death sentences are carried out on the 105 men who have been convicted by counter-terrorism courts for their involvement in the May 2008, attack on Khartoum by the Justice and Equality Movement;

- expressing concern that their convictions resulted from unfair trials and in many cases were based on confessions extracted under torture;

- calling for all them to be given a fair retrial in accordance with international standards of fair trial and without recourse to the death penalty;

- calling on the authorities to investigate the allegations that these men were tortured, and ensure that those responsible are prosecuted in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 04 MARCH 2010 TO:

URGENT ACTION

105 PEOPLE FACING DEATH SENTENCES IN SUDAN

ADditional Information

Counter-Terrorism Special Courts were established on 29 May 2008, to try those accused of taking part in the attack on Khartoum.

The JEM's May 2008 attack on Khartoum was stopped by Sudanese forces in a matter of hours. More than 200 people were reportedly killed in the clashes. Over the weeks that followed the attack, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arbitrarily arrested close to one thousand civilians mainly from the Darfur that were living in Khartoum, mainly on the basis of their origin and ethnic group. In the three months following the attack, Amnesty International received reports of extrajudicial executions, hundreds of arbitrary arrests and incommunicado detentions, and widespread torture and other ill-treatment in NISS detention centres. Around 200 persons are still unaccounted for today, their whereabouts and condition unknown.

Further information on UA: 108/09 Index: AFR 54/003/2010 Issue Date: 21 January 2010