PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 54/035/2007

22 June 2007

Further Information on UA 156/07 (AFR 54/032/2007, 19 June 2007) Incommunicado detention/fear of torture or ill-treatment

SUDAN Alfatih Abdallah (m), journalist, Al Sudanidaily newspaper

Ghazafi Adulmotalib (m), journalist, Al Ayamdaily newspaper

Abuobaida Awad (m), journalist, Ray Alsha'bdaily newspaper

Abualgasim Farahana (m), journalist, Alwan daily newspaper

Imad Mirghani Sid Ahmed (m), lawyer

Alam Eldin Abdelgaum, (m) lawyer

Dr Mohamed Jalal Ahmed Hashim (m), Lecturer at Khartoum University

Raafat Hassan Abbas (m), freelance journalist

An unknown number of others

New names: Abdelhalim Abdulghani (m), lawyer

Abdulaziz Mohamed Ali Khairi (m), engineer and community representative

Abdallah Abdelgaum (m), member of the Mahas community

Osman Shamat (m), driver

Saad Mohamed Ahmed (m), journalist

Four of the people arrested on 13 June have been released without charge, but another five, named above, are now known to have been arrested that day. All are held incommunicado, reportedly in Kober prison, in the capital, Khartoum.

Alfatih Abdallah, Ghazafi Abdulmotalib, Abuobaida Awad and Abualgasim Farahana were released from Kober prison early in the morning of 20 June.

Most of the detainees are held in the political section of Kober prison. The whereabouts of Dr Mohamed Jalal Ahmed Hashim and Raafat Hassan Abbas are unknown, and they are at grave risk of torture.

Most of the journalists and lawyers were arrested at around 11pm on 13 June in the city of Dongola, capital of Northern State. They had travelled together from Khartoum, to investigate the violence and arrests which had followed protests earlier that day against the plans for the Kajbar Dam on the Nile, in the populated Mahas region.

Several members and associates of The Committee Against the Building of Kajbar Dam, a group campaigning on behalf of the communities which will be affected by the dam, were also arrested in Khartoum.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Article 31 of the 1999 National Security Forces Act gives the security forces the power to detain people for up to nine months without access to judicial review. All those detained over the protests against the Kajbar Dam are likely to be held under this legislation.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible, in Arabic, English or your own language:

-expressing concern for the lawyers and journalists detained on the day of protests against the construction of the Kajbar Dam;

- urging the authorities to give them immediate and regular access to their families, lawyers, and any medical treatment they may require;

- urging the authorities to chargethe men with recognisably criminal offences, or else release them immediately;

- urging the authorities to repeal Article 31 of the National Security Forces Act, which allows detainees to be held for up to nine months without access to judicial review.

APPEALS TO:

Prof. Al-Zubair Bashir Taha

Minister of Internal Affairs

Ministry of Interior, PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan

Fax: + 249 183 774339

+ 249 183 776554 (Please mark, "FAO Minister of Internal Affairs")

Salutation: Dear Minister

Mr Muhammad Ali al-Maradhi

Minister of Justice and Attorney General

Ministry of Justice

PO Box 302, Khartoum, Sudan

Fax: + 249 183 780796 (Please mark, "FAO Minister of Justice")

Email: info@sudanjudiciary.org

Salutation: Dear Minister

COPIES TO:

Dr Abdel Moneim Osman Taha

Rapporteur, Advisory Council for Human Rights

Khartoum, Sudan

Email: human_rights_sudan@hotmail.com

Human Rights Committee

The Peoples Hall

Omdurman, Sudan

Fax: +249 187 560950

E-mail: info@sudan-parliament.org

and to diplomatic representatives of Sudan accredited to your country.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.Check with the International Secretariat, or your section office, if sending appeals after 3 August 2007.********