Sudanese Public Prosecution Detains Two Senior Forensic Specialists

Arab World

January 3rd, 11:04am

Khartoum- Ahmed Younis

Part of the popular demonstrations that took place in Khartoum in December 2020 in commemoration of the revolution that toppled Omar al-Bashir’s regime (AP)

The Sudanese Public Prosecution has arrested two senior forensic specialists on charges related to medical reports according to which victims of the violent dispersal of the sit-in were buried in front of the army headquarters in Khartoum in 2019. In November 2020, the public prosecutor found mass graves near the al-Markhiyat Mountains northwest of Omdurman for the remains of civilians who were killed during the bloody attack by security forces and militiamen outside the army headquarters. Former director of the forensic medicine authority and the suspended director of the Omdurman morgue were arrested for the illegal burial of the victims, Sudan Tribune quoted judicial officials on Saturday. Army forces and members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) perpetrated unconscionable acts of violence to disperse the peaceful sit-in in front of the army headquarters on June 3, 2019. Over 200 people were killed during the brutal attack and 1,000 were injured. Those acts included “extrajudicial killings and torture, excessive use of force, sexual and gender-based violence, and the forced disappearance of detained protesters,” the newspaper reported. Health authorities, however, said that the number of the victims reached 85 persons, it added. The Director of the Omdurman morgue was accused of releasing an autopsy report on the circumstances of the killing of a Sudanese youth under torture inside an RSF prison. He claimed that the death was not a result of a criminal act but rather a pathological cause, pointing out that there were no visible signs of violence on the body. Following a request by the deceased’s relatives, the Public Prosecutor ordered a re-autopsy. The probe report found that there were bruises under the scalp and on both sides of the chest, which were not proven in the doctor’s report. It concluded that the death was due to a hemorrhage in the brain resulting from a head injury, contrary to what was stated by the arrested doctor's report. A peaceful sit-in in front of the army headquarters on April 6, 2019 led to the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist 30-year rule in Sudan. Protesters remained on the streets, mainly outside army headquarters, after Bashir's fall, to pressure the military into sharing power with civilians. They demanded that ousted regime figures be held accountable and its political and economic structure be dismantled. During negotiations between the military and the rebel leaders on June 3, the military forces dispersed the sit-in. Head of the Transitional Military Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan then announced the halt of talks, telecommunications companies cut off internet service, and protesters in Khartoum and other cities were chased for more than a day after the sit-in ended.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2718686/sudanese-public-prosecution-detains-two-senior-forensic-specialists