Abdel Nabi Ali Ahmad, former regional governor and university lecturer, Adam Yousif, member of the Ansar religious order, Fadl al-Nur Jabir, senior member of the Umma Party, Fadlalla Burma Nasir, former government minister, Hashim Awad Abdel Magid, lawyer: Five senior members of the banned Umma Party are reported to have been detained incommunicado without charge or trial in Khartoum. There is concern that they are at risk of torture and ill-treatment and that they may be prisoners of conscience. They were reportedly arrested in late December 1996/early January 1997. It is believed that they are being held as punishment for the political activities in exile of Sadiq al-Mahdi, the leader of the Umma Party, who escaped from Sudan in mid-December 1996.
