On 7 January 2016, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested Orwa Al Sadig Ismail Hamdoun, a political activist affiliated to Sudan's main opposition party − the National Umma Party − and brother to Emad Al Sadig Ismail Hamdoun, arrested at the Omdurman headquarters of the National Umma Party on 14 December 2015. Detained incommunicado for several days, Orwa was tortured and denied the right to see a lawyer or to receive visits from his family. In view of this information, Alkarama and the Arab Coalition for Sudan (ACS) sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) to ask the Sudanese authorities to guarantee his mental and physical health and to release him.
On 16 December 2015, as the Al Sadig family tried to visit Orwa's younger brother Emad at the NISS facility in North Khartoum, they were rejected by the NISS, who also threatened Orwa with arrest if he was to publicise Emad's case or to try to visit him again. On 7 January 2016, these threats became reality when, at around 7pm, Orwa was called by an anonymous person who asked to meet him a few blocks away from his house. Intrigued, the 30-year-old man went to the meeting place where he started to be chased by a car that eventually knocked him over. Several men in civilian clothes then forced him into the car that left for an unknown destination. Neighbours who had witnessed the arrest alerted Orwa's relatives. They later learned that he was detained in the NISS facility in the Amarat district of Khartoum, but when they went to visit him, the guards denied them entrance, as well as to his lawyer.
Allowed to see him on 17 January, his family not only learnt that he had been tortured during his detention, but that his detention had been renewed by the State Security General Attorney, even though he had not yet been charged. Orwa is still detained there and his relatives fear for his health since he is undernourished and has not been allowed to see a doctor following the acts of torture he was subjected to.
"Orwa's situation, as for many other political opponents jailed in Sudan, is dramatic and could last a lot longer if nothing is done to help him," said Thomas-John Guinard, Alkarama's Regional officer for the Nile. "In fact, the NISS can detain him without charge for months, accuse him of whatever they want and subject him to all kinds of torture, without fear of being held accountable, and the authorities will not say a thing."
Hoping to contribute to making his detention shorter, Alkarama and ACS sent an urgent appeal to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT), to intervene with the Sudanese authorities. The Sudanese authorities should put an end to the systematic repression of political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists and adopt laws, particularly regarding torture, that meet its international obligations enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the State is a party since 1986.
For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).