Two Sudanese pastors have been detained without charge since December, according to World Watch Monitor (WWM).
Telahoon Nogosi Kassa Rata was told to report to Sudan's National
Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) in mid-December, local sources
report.
"He went to the NISS office behind the airport at al-Mashtel the next
day, and he has been detained ever since," the source said.
Another pastor, Rev Hassan Abduraheem Kodi Taour from the district of
Bahri, has also been detained since December. He was arrested
alongside Rev Kowa Shamal who has been acquitted, but Taour is still
being held.
No details are known of the men's location or physical health and both
been are "being held incommunicado", according to WWM, a persecution
watch group.
Taour's lawyer has written to the Sudanese Human Rights
Council to ask for help in bringing the case to court but has so far
received no reply.
The Sudan Council of Churches has also written a letter to the
Ministry of Religious Affairs, govermnent ministers and the Security
Office to appeal for access to Rev Taour and "other Christians" believed
to be held by the NISS, but has as yet also not received a response.
According to Sudanese law, an individual must either be released or
presented to court 45 days after arrest. However neither event has
occurred in over 60 days since Rata and Taour's arrest.
"The latest cases are representative of a much larger campaign by
Sudan's government to eradicate Christianity," Sudanese religious
freedom activist Kamal Fahmi told WWM.
"Since the secession of South Sudan (July 2011), Khartoum has
intensified the war in Blue Nile and the Nuba Mountains (both areas of
known Christian presence), and the indiscriminate harassment and arrests
of church leaders and active church members" said Fahmi, who has
campaigned for the repeal of Islam's blasphemy and apostasy laws.
"Foreign Christian workers have been deported. Sudan has stopped the
import of Christian literature and scriptures, while confiscating most
of the Christian literature in the country and closing the only
Christian bookshop in the capital Khartoum," said Fahmi.
"Torture and arrest of converts from Islam is also commonplace" he added.
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