AFR 54/049/2007 - 28 August 2007
Dr Mohamed Jalal Ahmed Hashim was released on 25 August.
He thanked Amnesty International very much for its support. He said that so many faxes arrived that the security services holding him suspected that he was a very important person with many contacts worldwide. Since many of the faxes mentioned his diabetes prison medical staff started to check his diabetes every day.
He said that in June he was visited by a delegation led by the President of the Bar Association. However he was of the view that the visit was done simply for the sake of appearances, as his requests to consult a lawyer were ignored for the 10 weeks that he was held in detention.
Upon his release he said to Amnesty International : "In Sudan to have someone detained unlawfully is so common that people just worry about being tortured, not about being detained". He was released after he agreed to sign a statement saying he would not engage in public political activities ; he said he agreed because his fellow detainees had signed the same statement.
Dr Mohamed Jalal Ahmed Hashim, who is a prominent opponent of the construction of the Kajbar Dam, was arrested on 16 June 2007 in Khartoum University. Several other people, opposed to the dam’s construction were also arrested at the same time as Dr. Mohamed Jalal Ahmed Hashim.
Local residents living in the immediate environs of the dam have been protesting against the destruction of their villages and the failure of the authorities to hold a proper consultation over the construction of the dam. The Kajbar dam is to be located on the third cataract of the Nile in north Sudan.
No further action is requested from the UA network. Many thanks to all who sent appeals.
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