HUDO Centre
4th September 2016
Update (3) COURT TRIAL OF NISS/SUDAN AGAINST PASTORS AND ACTIVIST
On 1st September 2016, the court proceedings started at 01:00 pm and the
hearing was before Justice Dr. Osama M. Abdalla. The translator was not present
and the investigator/prosecutor yet again displayed the projector showing
photos that purportedly belonged to the 1st defendant. The judge ended the
session at 03:00 pm and adjourned court to 5th Sept 2016 for the investigator
to continue his submission of exhibits. Summary of the court session The
session was presided over by Justice Dr. Osama M. Abdalla at Khartoum Centre Court.
In attendance was the investigator, complainant, the defendants and their
lawyers. The translator was not present. The investigator counsel/ Abdurrahman
continued to display photos on the projector tagged with some comments for the
first defendant (Peter) in Nuba Mountains/ SPLA-N territory. He further played
the audio recordings claiming that it was the 1st defendant interviewing a
student named Ali Omer Mussa (who was burnt). That peter had visited the
student together with the 2nd and 3rd defendants at his house in Alhaj-Yousif
neighborhood of Khartoum. The investigator added that, while in Addis Ababa the
2nd defendant said/attributed that “the burning of the student was committed by
Sudan authorities in order to torture him because he had converted from Islam
to Christianity” yet the burning (according to the investigator) occurred
during a demonstration of students from Khartoum University. The 1st
defendant’s lawyer objected and requested that the photos should be displayed
by the technical experts who was tested and prepared the film, the judge
promised to do so when needed. Towards 03:00 pm, the complainant’s lawyer
requested for the end of court session because the remaining two tapes were to
take more than one hour. The judge granted his request and adjourned court to
5th Sept 2016 for the investigator to summarize and conclude display of
exhibits in order to save the court’s time.
Recommendations/ Appeal
Ensure that the international standard of justice is followed;
§ HUDO urges the Sudan
court to ensure fair trial.
§ HUDO urges the EU, USA
and other embassies to attend the court sessions.
§ HUDO urges the activists
and defendants’ supporters to keep on attending the trial.
End: For any further information please write to hudo2009@gmail.com