The ICJ called on the Sudanese authorities to put an end to the incommunicado detention of Mr. Salih Mahmoud Osman and to either charge him with an offence or immediately release him.
The Centre for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers of the ICJ called on the Sudanese Government to either bring charges or release a human rights lawyer currently held in incommunicado detention and to allow him to communicate with his family and to receive legal representation.
Mr Salih Mahmoud Osman was arrested by members of the National Security Agency (NSA) on 1 February. He has been kept in incommunicado detention since then, first at the NSA headquarters in Wad Medani and, from 3 February onward, at an undisclosed location in Khartoum.
“Unless the Sudanese authorities charge him with a criminal offence and bring him before an independent and impartial tribunal, Mr. Osman must be immediately released” said Linda Besharaty-Movaed, ICJ/CIJL Legal Advisor. “The grounds for his arrest and detention, as well as his location, must urgently be made public, and he must be allowed to communicate with his lawyer”.
Even though the reason of Mr. Osman’s arrest and detention are not known, there is reason to believe they are linked to his provision of legal aid to detainees facing capital punishment and victims of human rights abuses in Darfur province, the site of an ongoing internal armed conflict. Both parties to the conflict have been accused of committing several human rights abuses in this province and the rest of the country, including the capital Khartoum.
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Photo by Patricia Williams