Local and international condemnation and rejection followed after an attack by former regime proponents was carried out on the Sudanese Lawyers Union house yesterday.
Khartoum: AlTaghyeer
The attack on the lawyer’s union headquarters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, yesterday, was met with widespread rejection and condemnation.
Lawyers were detained in their union HQ and subjected to violence from armed militias affiliated with the former regime.
Emergency lawyers in Sudan held all state agencies fully responsible for their safety.
This took place amid apparent inaction by the police forces, who did not intervene to protect the house or the assaulted lawyers.
Attack Aftermath
In a press release, the National Umma Party’s legal team condemned the “barbaric behavior that gangs and thugs of the former regime continue to pursue.”
The legal sector affirmed that it stands firmly and resolutely in the face of aggressors and that it would not stand idly by in the face of this attack carried out “on honorable lawyers and the steering committee that came with the order of the glorious December.”
He appealed to all honorable lawyers to stand strong and solid in the face of “this absurdity” that targets the security and safety of the homeland and its citizens.
The Sudanese Journalists Syndicate described the chants of the dissolved party members calling for bloodshed as “behavior that expresses the malicious intentions of the counter-revolutionary forces.”
In a press release, the Syndicate condemned and denounced this behavior and pleaded the revolutionary forces to help ward off the attack, and urged the police to play their full role.
The statement said that the attack on the union headquarters was part of the totalitarian forces’ attempt to obstruct the democratic transition process.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese Journalists Network expressed deep concern about the attack, as well as the complicity of the police who simply “watched” the attack.
It condemned the attack and called on all professional bodies to defend the freedom and independence of the union.
International Condemnation
For his part, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, President of “UNITAMS” Volker Perthes, expressed deep concern over the attack on the lawyers’ union offices.
Perthes said in a press statement that he strongly condemns the attack, and any other act of violence used to settle political or legal differences.
“The steering committee of the Sudanese Bar Association, regardless of its legal status, played an important role in calling for a comprehensive speech in the context of the current political process,” Perthes said.
“The attack is a clear signal sent against the ongoing efforts to reach an acceptable consensus between the political and military forces towards a genuine democratic transition in Sudan,” he continued.
He pointed out that earlier this year, the Bar Association initiated a draft constitutional framework that was adopted by several Sudanese actors, and served as a basis for consultations among all stakeholders.
Peretz emphasized that UNITAMS will continue to facilitate all Sudanese-led initiatives that support a peaceful transition.
He said that with the security and humanitarian situation deteriorating day by day across the country, finding a widely acceptable solution is more urgent than ever for the benefit of all Sudanese.
