(5 November 2018) The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls upon Sudanese authorities to urgently investigate the death of Mr. Fathi Ali Mohamed Hamamd who died at Alobid police station in North Kordofan state on 24 October 2018. Torture and other ill-treatment are absolutely prohibited under international law and as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Sudan has made a commitment to an absolute ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Sudan signed the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) in 1986 but it is yet to ratify the Convention.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) has confirmed a clear responsibility on States to account for death and serious injury in police custody given the control that states exercise over persons in custody. In its Guidelines on the Conditions of Arrest, Police Custody and Pre-Trial Detention in Africa, the ACHPR has set out that a prompt, impartial and independent inquiry must be carried out by a judicial authority to determine the cause, manner and time of death, the person responsible, and any pattern or practice which may have brought about the death.
At around 9:00 pm, on 23 October 2018, a group of 15 police officers raided a house in Al-Salam neighborhood, in the town of Alobid in North Kordofan state upon suspicion that alcohol was being brewed and consumed there. It is reported that the police jumped over the wall into the house. It is further reported that the police accused the female occupants of the house of brewing alcohol and the men of consuming the alcohol and disrupting the peace of the people. The police then started randomly beating all the men, with hose pipes and wooden sticks. The women were not beaten. They were all handcuffed and loaded on to the police vehicle.
One of the occupants of the house, Mr Fathi Ali Mohamed Hamamd was seated on a chair in one of the rooms when another group of the policemen came in through the door. It is reported that the police threw him face down, and beat his head, hands, back and the rest of his body. He was also handcuffed and put in the same vehicle where his colleagues were.
The suspects were driven to Alobid police station where they were charged with drinking of alcohol under Article 78 of the Sudanese Criminal Act of 1991. Article 78 of the 1991 Criminal Act prohibits Muslims from drinking alcohol and provides for a penalty of forty lashes. It is alleged that all through the journey to the police station, the police continued beating the suspects.
On the morning of 24 October, Mr Fathi was screaming loudly and his speech was uncoordinated. A reliable source informed ACJPS that a police man entered the cell, handcuffed his hands behind his back and started kicking and beating him while pushing him from behind until he knocked his head against the cement floor and died on spot, in the presence of his colleagues and other detainees.
After a while, a group of policemen came and removed the handcuffs from the deceased and then moved all the detainees outside. The police investigators then came and took a sample of the blood stain on the floor and drew a sketch of where Mr Fathi’s lifeless body lay. The police investigators relied on Article 51 (death in certain circumstances) to report that Mr. Fatih’s death was a result of unclear circumstances.
A group of lawyers and the family of the victim pressured the police to take the body of the victim to the hospital for a post-mortem to be conducted. The post-mortem report showed that Mr Fathi’s death resulted from the alleged torture he was subjected to. The victim’s family requested the prosecutor’s office to investigate the case but the prosecutor’s office referred the file to the police.
On 25 October 2018, the remaining four men who had been arrested with Mr. Fatih were brought before a judge and the charges against them were dropped after the police testified that the men were not drinking any alcohol when they were arrested. They were later released after spending two days in detention.
ACJPS calls upon Sudan to fulfill its obligation to conduct an impartial and effective investigation into the death of Mr. Fathi and the ill-treatment of the other detainees with the purposes of holding the perpetrators to account and affording redress to the victims.
Background
The practice of torture by public order police in Sudan is so common that the police cell is no longer a secure place for detainees. In August 2017, Mr. Usama Mohammed Abdulsalam, a suspect arrested on suspicion of drinking alcohol died in Diem Mayo public order police station in Port Sudan and a medical report issued after his death stated that he died from acute dehydration and that he had been returned to the police cell against medical advice that he should remain at the hospital in an air-conditioned room with access to plenty of fluids. In same month, Mr Hussein Hadab and Khamis Koko died immediately following their release from police custody. The two had been convicted of alcohol drinking and public nuisance under Article 78 by the Public Order court of Diem Mayo in Port Sudan. While the circumstances of their death remain mysterious, sources indicated to ACJPS that they believed they may have died because of the poor conditions of their detention and subsequent flogging.
Under Articles 2 and 4 of the Convention Against Torture, state parties must criminalize torture effectively in domestic law. All complaints or reports of torture and other ill-treatment must be promptly, independently, impartially and effectively investigated. Where sufficient, admissible evidence exists, those suspected of committing the crime of torture or other acts of ill-treatment should be prosecuted in proceedings that meet international standards of fairness.
Torture allegations remain un-investigated in Sudan and because of the immunities enjoyed by the authorities, the police continue to evade accountability for their wrongful acts. The National Intelligence Security Services(NISS) members enjoy immunity under Article 52 of the National Security Act of 2010 and thus hinder efforts to hold them accountable for serious human rights violations committed including torture and ill-treatment.
In addition to investigating the deaths of Fathi Ali Mohamed, African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) calls on the Government of Sudan to:
- Respect its obligation under the regional and international human rights mechanism and ratify the Convention against Torture.
- Criminalize torture and other acts of ill-treatment.
- Repeal the public order laws.
- Lift the immunities enjoyed by perpetrators and ensure that they are held accountable.
- Compensate the victim’s family with immediate investigation of invasion of the house in Al-Salam neighborhood.
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