URGENT ACTION

OPPOSITION LEADER UNDER HOUSE ARREST

Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad, a leader of the opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, is under house arrest. She has not been charged. Her five young children must go out unaccompanied to buy food.

Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad was arrested in the morning of 21 April by three armed men in plain clothes and taken to the offices of the National Security Service (NSS) in Khartoum North (a suburb of the capital, Khartoum). She was released the same day, but placed under house arrest with her five children, aged between three and 12 years. She has not been charged.

As Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad has been unable to leave her house, her children must go out unaccompanied to buy food, putting them at risk. The children are subjected to body searches by NSS agents stationed outside the house every time they enter or leave. On at least one occasion, a child was beaten by an NSS agent while playing outside.

Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad is the Acting Secretary General of the opposition party Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), which was banned in 2011. As a lawyer, she has been working in recent months on the issue of political detainees, particularly those of her own party.

Please write immediately in Arabic, English or your own language:

Calling on the authorities to lift the house arrest of Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad or charge her with a recognizably criminal offence;

Expressing concern that NSS agents have harassed and assaulted Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad's children, and urging the authorities to ensure that this does not happen again;

Urging them to end immediately their harassment and intimidation of peaceful activists in Sudan, and respect their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 29 JUNE 2012 TO:

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President

HE Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir

Office of the President

People’s Palace

PO Box 281

Khartoum

Sudan

Email: info@sudan.gov.sd

Salutation: Your Excellency

Minister of Justice

Mohammed Bushara Dousa

Ministry of Justice,

PO Box 302

Al Nil Avenue, �Khartoum, �Sudan

Salutation: Your Excellency

And copies to:

Minister of Interior

Ibrahim Mohamed Hamed

Ministry of Interior

PO Box 873

Khartoum, �Sudan

Email: mut@isoc.sd

Salutation: Your Excellency

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Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:

Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation

Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date.

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URGENT ACTION

OPPOSITion leader under house arrest

ADditional Information

The Sudanese government in April 2012 intensified its crackdown on independent media and opposition activists, at a time of heightened tensions with South Sudan. Since mid-April the authorities have confiscated newspapers, harassed journalists and carried out a wave of arrests of members of the SPLM-N. In addition to Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad, SPLM-N activist Alawiya Osman Ismail Kibaida has been detained incommunicado since 21 April. At least 10 other SPLM-N members were reportedly arrested in the city of Port Sudan that day.

Conflict broke out in June 2011 between government forces and the SPLA-N in the state of Southern Kordofan. The conflict expanded to Blue Nile state in September. The authorities responded by banning the SPLM-N and detained dozens of its members without charge, denying them access to lawyers and their families.

Name: Ezdehar Jumaa Said Ahmad

Gender m/f: F

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UA: 142/12 Index: AFR 54/020/2012 Issue Date: 18 May 2012

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