Category: Justice

{{Sudanese authorities on Sunday released the National Umma Party (NUP) leader al-Sadiq al-Mahdi after being in detention for almost a month, state media reported.}}

The move was done after al-Mahdi’s lawyers appealed to the justice minister Mohamed Bushara Dousa agreed to use his powers under article (58) of Sudan’s penal code to stop criminal proceedings against any suspect at any point before being sentenced by a court.

The minister also consulted with the plaintiff, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), which approved of his decision in line with public interests being superior to private interests.

According to media report, Dousa also cited the spirit of national reconciliation in the country for releasing the former Prime Minister.

State media carried a statement by NUP Central Commission stating that they support the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and that what al-Mahdi mentioned regarding RSF is derived from complaints and claims “that are not necessarily all true”.

There was no mention in the state media of a pardon by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir as was reported earlier following a mediation led by a committee of national personalities.

Sudan’s state minister of information Yasser Youssef told Reuters that the release of al-Mahdi occurred within a “legal framework” but did not give further details.

Al-Mahdi was arrested on May 17th for criticizing alleged crimes and atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Force (RSF) militia. He was accused of undermining the constitution among other charges that could have led to the death penalty if convicted.

Kamal Idriss, a member of the national personalities committee was quoted at a press conference on Sunday as saying that al-Mahdi will turn the plight of the prison into a point of convergence to achieve national agreement and social peace.

He said al-Mahdi met with the mediation committee which included figures from various political parties and entities including the veteran Islamist , Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, father Falt?’us Faraj, the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP) leading figure, Taha Ali al-Bashir, former prime minister, al-Gizouli Dafa’alla, and former chief justice, Dafa’alla Al-Hag Youssef.

According to Idriss, the committee members felt that the country was facing a real danger following arrest of al-Mahdi and therefore decided to intervene to salvage the national dialogue, stressing that the latter’s detention represented a significant impediment in the face of national agreement.

{{Opposition leader of Umma Party and Sudan’s former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi receives a hug from a supporter at his home in Omdurman after he was released, June 15, 2014 }}
SUNA

{{Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo is be tried at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity during post-election violence in which around 3,000 people were killed, judges said on Thursday.}}

Gbagbo is accused of plunging his country into civil war rather than relinquish his grip on power after losing a presidential run-off vote in 2010.

In the 131-page ruling, judges found there were “substantial grounds to believe” Gbagbo was criminally responsible for the crimes committed during the violence, singling out supporters of his political rival Alassane Ouattara for “systematic attack”.

Prosecutors say he devised a plan with co-conspirators including his wife Simone, who remains under house arrest in Ivory Coast, and youth leader Charles Ble Goude, currently in ICC custody, to stoke the violence and benefit from it.

“It’s the first victory for the victims of the post-election crisis,” said Issiaka Diaby, who heads a collective of victims of the violence. “From today, people will know you can no longer kill and burn people with impunity.”

Lawyers for Gbagbo could not be immediately reached for comment and it was unclear whether they planned to appeal the judges’ decision that prosecutors had submitted enough evidence to justify pursuing the case.

“The Ivorian Popular Front expresses its astonishment and bitterness faced with a decision that contributes nothing to national reconciliation,” Gbagbo’s political party said in a statement published late on Thursday.

Supporters of Gbagbo and Ble Goude have accused Ouattara, now president, of using the court as a political tool to get rid of his political enemies. They have criticised prosecutors for bringing cases only against Gbagbo and his allies.

{reuters}

{{An Egyptian court sentenced 10 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to death in absentia on Saturday, but postponed sentencing of the movement’s leader and other senior members on trial in the same case, judicial sources said.}}

Those sentenced were convicted on charges including inciting violence and blocking a major road north of Cairo during protests after the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last July.

All 10 were assumed to be in hiding amid a state crackdown on the group since Mursi’s ouster. One of those sentenced was Abdul Rahman al-Barr, a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Council, the movement’s executive board.

Death sentence recommendations in Egypt are passed on to the country’s Mufti, the highest religious authority. His opinion can be ignored by the court. The rulings can be appealed.

Judge Hassan Fareed said the verdict for the rest of the defendants would be announced at a hearing on July 5.

Those 38 defendants include the Islamist movement’s General Guide Mohamed Badie and senior member Mohamed El-Beltagy, along with former ministers from Mursi’s government.

Egypt’s biggest political force until last year, the Brotherhood has been driven underground and declared a terrorist organisation.

Badie was among 683 people sentenced to death in April.

Hundreds of Brotherhood supporters and members of the security forces have been killed since Mursi’s ouster. Secular activists are also in jail. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said last month 16 journalists were imprisoned in Egypt.

The military-backed government in place since Mursi’s ouster accuses the Brotherhood of turning to violence. The group denies that accusation.

Critics of the judiciary say it is a tool in a state crackdown against dissent. Security forces detained thousands of Brotherhood supporters after Mursi’s overthrow. More recently, courts have sentenced hundreds of the accused, often after brief hearings where scant evidence is offered by the prosecution, rights groups say.

reuters