The special criminal court in Sinja town set up for the trial of members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) arrested in September 2011 in the Blue Nile State on Wednesday started hearing judicial confessions of 25 detained, out of about 78 suspects.
Judge Abdelmunim Yunis postponed the second session scheduled to take place on Thursday due to his alleged bad health condition.
El Tijani Hassan, member of the Sudanese Organisation for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms on Wednesday reported that the session was adjourned to 8 and 9 January 2014. He noted the court had already referred the cases to another judge in order to adjudicate the issue.
Hassan also asserted that the Sudanese Organisation will not accept to defend the accused on the date fixed by the court due its engagement with other cases on that date.
The SPLM-N detainees face charges under article 12 of Sudan’s Penal Code, concerning involvement in criminal activities, article 24 for criminal acts, article 50 for agitating war against the state, article 52 for dealing with an enemy of the state, and article 58 for inciting rebellion in Sudan.
Following heavy fighting between SPLM-N forces and pro-government militias in Blue Nile state in September 2011, Khartoum dismissed the state governor, replacing him with a military governor who subsequently declared a State of Emergency.
“This gave state security authority to exercise arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killing involving a large number of civilians, accusing them of being affiliated to SPLM-N,” the Human Rights and Development Organisation (HUDO) stated.
File photo
Related:
Sinja Court acquits three SPLA-N members, accuses and sentences others (20 September 2013)
Sennar court sentences three Blue Nile detainees to imprisonment (28 August 2013)