(30 December 2020) Sudanese authorities
should urgently investigate the reported abduction, torture, and custodial
death of Mr. Baha Eldeen Nory Mohamed Ali. On 16 December, Mr. Baha Eldeen was
picked up by two armed men and later detained at a Rapid Support Forces (RSF)
detention centre in Alsafia neighbourhood in Khartoum North. On 21 December,
Mr. Baha Eldeen’s family refused to receive his body after noticing signs of
torture.
Sudanese authorities, including RSF, are known to use ill-treatment and torture for purposes of intimidation and extraction of confessions. The use of torture in Sudan is exacerbated by a weak legal framework to ensure the prohibition of torture. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights considers torture as “one of the most egregious and morally reprehensible human rights abuses” whose prohibition is a fundamental value of democratic societies.[i]
On
16 December 2020, two armed men dressed in plainclothes picked up Mr. Baha
Eldeen from a local market in Kalakla Sangaat neighbourhood in Khartoum and
took him away in a Toyota Hilux without a number plate. He was taken to an RSF
detention centre in Alsafia neighbourhood in Khartoum North. Following his
detention, Mr. Baha Eldeen’s family went looking for him and inquired at
various police stations and detention centres but his whereabouts were unknown.
The following day, 17 December, his family filed a case and reported his
disappearance at the police station in Kalakla Sangaat neighbourhood.
Five
days later, on 21 December, his family received an anonymous call informing
them that Mr. Baha Eldeen had been taken to Omdurman hospital and asked them to
go and receive his body. However, his family refused to receive his body
without an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death. Reliable sources reported
that his body showed signs of torture, including wounds on his head, hands and
feet that possibly caused by both hard and sharp objects. An initial medical
report claimed that the cause of death was hypertension however the deceased’s
family requested another autopsy be carried out. A second medical report stated
that the deceased was tortured.
On
27 December 2020, another autopsy was carried out by a committee of experts
formed by the Forensic Medicine Authority based on a request from the Public
Prosecution. The following day, 28 December, the Public Prosecution received
the Committee’s report confirming that the deceased suffered multiple injuries
that led to his death. The Public Prosecution went ahead to file a criminal
case, file no. 494/2020, under charges of murder (Article 130) and joint acts
of conspiracy (Article 21) of the 1991 Criminal Act. Three public prosecutors
headed by a chief prosecutor have been assigned to this case.
The
African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) urges the Government of
Sudan to ensure an effective investigation of Mr. Baha Eldeen’s abduction,
detention, reported ill-treatment and subsequent death. Such an investigation
should be thorough and impartial with the view of finding and holding the
perpetrators accountable.
In a
communication against Sudan, the African Commission has highlighted that
“allegations of torture against public officials impose an immediate duty on
the State to initiate a prompt, impartial and effective investigation in order
to establish the veracity of these allegations and bring the perpetrators to
justice.”[ii] It is therefore imperative that Sudan must uphold its
international obligations under relevant regional and international treaties
which it ratified.
ACJPS
reiterates calls for the ratification and subsequent domestic implementation of
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearances (ICPPED) and Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UN CAT).
Taking
note of on-going law reform process, particularly criminal justice reforms,
ACJPS further urges that Transitional Government adopt a comprehensive reform
process to ensure legislation adequately defines torture and enforced
disappearances along with appropriate punishments in line with international
standards; provide effective access to justice and adequate reparation to
victims of torture, and ensure impartial and thorough investigations of
allegations of torture and ill-treatment by state authorities. The Government
should expressly denounce the use of torture by state authorities to intimidate
or extract confessions from persons in their custody.
Background
In
recent years, there has been increased use of “short-term” disappearances where
victims are detained incommunicado for an undefined period and eventually
freed. During the Sudanese Revolution, hundreds of peaceful protesters,
students, human rights defenders, political opponents, journalist, and doctors
were allegedly subjected to torture and inhumane conditions while detained incommunicado
for months by the National Intelligence Security Services (NISS) in
security-controlled detention centres and
unknown locations.
Enforced
Disappearances in Sudan are often co.upled with other gross human rights
violations, such as the practice of arbitrary arrests and/or detention,
torture, rape and in some cases death. This is facilitated by the fact that
victims are often detained incommunicado, in “inaccessible” detention centres,
security-controlled prison sections and, in unknown locations, thus placing
them outside of the protection of the law with no access to legal remedies.
For
victims, lack of accountability has impacted their rights to remedy and
redress, as well as the right to the truth of the families. Sudan has not
ratified the ICPPED or UN CAT