Government claims perpetrators in protestors attack will face charges
14 May 2021
The Minister of Defence, Lt Hen Yasin Ibrahim, claimed the armed men who killed Othman Ahmed and Muddathir Mukhtar on Tuesday evening will be charged in a few days.
The announcement follows an order by the Attorney General Al-Habr Taj Al-Sir on Wednesday issuing an investigation into the killings and a public condemnation by Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok calling the attack a “full-fledged crime,” where live bullets were used that “cannot be tolerated or ignored.”
Othman and Muddathir were protesting peacefully Tuesday evening alongside hundreds of others at the General Command of the Sudan Armed Forces in Khartoum to break the Ramadan fast in commemoration of the 3 June 2019 sit-in massacre that coincides with the 29th day of Ramadan.
On 3 June 2019, a sit-in protest at the army headquarters calling for the removal of the former regime, the National Congress Party, was violently disbursed, killing over 100 people and wounding hundreds more.
The state news agency revealed that both Othman and Muddathir were killed by live bullets, each directly targeted, while at least 12 others were injured in the attack.
The latest attack against protestors demanding justice amidst the lack of progress from the committee designed to investigate the 3 June 2019 massacre has led to a deep sense of frustration. The committee has failed to present any results since its inception a year and a half ago.
Earlier in the month, the December Revolution Families of Martyrs Organisation called for the International Criminal Court to take over the 3 June investigations.
The head of the investigative committee, advocate Nabil Adib, said they would consider issuing a time limit to their investigations into the 3 June massacre if called by the Council of Ministers.
But the lack of progress may be more linked to access than time. According to Adib, the committee only recently completed investigations within the military, for instance.
Sudan’s civil service may still be predominantly run by members of the former regime, the National Congress Party, especially cadres within the justice system, a 2020 Ayin investigation revealed. It is these same elements within the security forces that still work under the transitional period, activists say, and continue to make martyrs of the Sudanese people who call for justice.
Meanwhile, a concert at the “Officers Club Theatre” in Khartoum set for this evening was canceled after the renowned Sudanese musician Mohamed Al-Amin cut the show in solidarity with the victims of Tuesday’s attack. “Since these great people rose up in the face of tyranny and humiliation in the form of the glorious December revolution, they have continued to embody the highest meaning of inimitable heroism and love for this dear country,” Al-Amin wrote in a Facebook post.
Al-Amin offered his deepest condolences to the families of those who had fallen, stressing their adherence to “their right to just retribution until all legitimate demands are fulfilled.”