Five lawyers have been arrested in Khartoum for defending individuals accused of collaborating with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the Emergency Lawyers rights group said on Tuesday.
Sudanese authorities are detaining hundreds of people on suspicion of collaborating with the RSF. While some are later brought to trial, others are released during investigations, and several courts have acquitted individuals of such charges.
“The authorities in Khartoum are targeting lawyers because they participated in cases related to cooperation with the Rapid Support Forces,” Mohamed Salah El-Din, a member of the group’s executive office, told Sudan Tribune.
He said that authorities interrogated the five lawyers last November before arresting them and filing criminal cases.
In a statement, the group said lawyers were being targeted by a “security cell”—comprised of the army, police, and intelligence services—under articles 50 and 51 of the Criminal Law, which relate to undermining the constitutional order and inciting war against the state.
The group said these articles are used to “bring arbitrary charges against civilians.”
Arrests of activists, teachers, and doctors by the security cell, which has wide powers of arrest and investigation in army-controlled areas, have been on the rise, the statement added.
The group also highlighted the case of lawyer Nasra Abkar Ibrahim, who, it said, was arbitrarily arrested with her sister in Omdurman. She faces what the group called “fabricated” charges of threatening a public official and influencing the course of justice.
Ibrahim is scheduled to be tried at the North Omdurman Criminal Court on October 29. The Emergency Lawyers group called for her legal rights to be respected and for monitoring of the trial to ensure fairness.
The group demanded the immediate cancellation of all “arbitrary” complaints against lawyers and civilians and called for the protection of lawyers’ immunity and judicial independence.
Sudan: Five lawyers arrested in Khartoum for defending RSF suspects, rights group says
