The Arrest of Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, December 7, 2016
The arrest of Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam puts in the sharpest possible relief the wave tyrannical arrests presently extending to a growing number of human rights voices and voices for nonviolent political change in Sudan. As Amnesty International notes in this “Newsflash” concerning Mudawi’s arrest, he once led the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), which was shut down by the government in March 2009. SUDO did invaluable work in Sudan and especially Darfur.
Dr. Mudawi Ibrahim Adam
This arrest yet again makes a mockery of the view of the National Islamic Front/National Congress Party held by the Obama administration…27 years after the military coup that brought the regime to power:
“We [the Obama administration] do not want to see the ouster of the [Khartoum] regime, nor regime change. We want to see the regime carrying out reform via constitutional democratic measures.” (Interview with Asharq al-Awsat, December 3, 2011 | http://english.aawsat.com/2011/12/article55244147/asharq-al-awsat-talks-to-us-special-envoy-to-sudan-princeton-lyman)
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL NEWSFLASH
8 December 2016
Sudan: Arrest of leading human rights activist underscores crackdown on dissent
The arrest of award-winning Sudanese human rights activist Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam is further proof of the government’s intolerance of independent voices, said Amnesty International after his employer confirmed today that state agents arrested him in Khartoum on 7 December.
He was arrested by National Intelligence Security Service agents at the University of Khartoum, where he works as an engineering professor, and taken to an undisclosed location, where he is at grave risk of torture and other ill-treatment.
He has not been informed of the reasons for his arrest or charged with any offence.
“Mudawi’s arbitrary arrest underscores the government’s desperate attempts to extinguish the last embers of dissent in the country. This wanton repression and disregard for human rights must come to an end,” said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.
“The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release him and all other detainees who have been arrested arbitrarily, and take measures to rein in the excessive powers of the National Intelligence Security Service.”
Mudawi, 58, has worked extensively on human rights causes throughout Sudan. In 2005, he was awarded the Human Rights Defenders at Risk Award by Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based human rights organization.
His arrest comes at a time when at least 23 opposition leaders and supporters are in jail having been arrested in connection with a three-day stay-at-home strike called in protest against the rising cost of living and government spending cuts. The strike took place between 27 to 29 November.
It is not the first time Mudawi has been arrested. In December 2003 he was detained for eight months in connection with his work on Darfur. He was arrested again in January 2005 in similar circumstances and held for two months, before being re-arrested in May the same year and held for a further eight days.
His organization, the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), was shut down by the government in March 2009.
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For more information or to arrange an interview, please call:
Seif Magango, +254 788 343897 or +254 20 428 3020, or email seif.magango@amnesty.org