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Sudan lifts immunity of army members accused of torturing citizen to death

December 30, 2020 at 11:43 am

Members of the Sudanese Army on 18 March 2017 [UNAMID/Flickr]

The Sudanese army’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced yesterday that it had lifted the immunity on several members, after the prosecutor’s office charged them with killing a citizen just four days after his arrest.

On 17 December, the RSF arrested Bahaa El-Din Nuri, and after four days the authorities informed his family that he had died and that they had to recover the body from the morgue. However, the victim’s family refused to do so after discovering signs of torture on their son’s corpse.

A statement issued by RSF spokesman, Jamal Jumaa, said: “According to the statement of the Prosecutor General, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo [known as Hemidti], ordered the lifting of immunity on the suspected members who arrested Bahaa El-Din Nuri and handing them over to the prosecutor’s office to conclude the investigation procedures.”

Jumaa added that Hemidti had pledged to follow-up on the necessary legal proceedings in the case until justice is served.

On Monday, the Sudanese prosecutor’s office filed a criminal case against members of the RSF, after an autopsy revealed the presence of fatal wounds on Nuri’s body leading to a criminal case being filed against the suspects on charges of committing premeditated murder and participating in the implementation of a criminal plan.

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RSF members who detained the victim were immediately arrested and handed over to the public prosecutor’s office.

Forty-five-year-old Nuri has been missing for more than a day when his sister informed the police. The family received a phone call on Monday informing them that their son had died and that his body was in a mortuary at Omdurman Hospital, according to a statement issued by the family. However they refused to collect the body because of it showed signs of torture.