AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL-PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AFR 54/010/2005
24 January 2005

Amnesty International today expressed its serious concern at the arrest of
Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, a leading Sudanese human rights activist and Chair
of the humanitarian organisation Sudan Social Development Organisation
(SUDO).

Members of Sudan's National Security and Intelligence Agency arrested Dr
Mudawi Ibrahim Adam and a friend Salah Mohamed Abdelrahman in his family
home in Kondua, a village in North Kordofan at 11pm GMT on Sunday 24
January. No reasons were given for their arrest and no one has so far had
access to the detainees. They were reportedly brought to the National
Security Agency office in the town of Umburua, North Kordofan.

"The two men must be given immediate access to their relatives, lawyers
and any medical assistance they may need. Incommunicado detentions have
provided the context for numerous acts of torture by the Sudanese National
Security Agency" said Amnesty International's Africa program Director
Kolawole Olaniyan.

Amnesty International is worried about the continued harassment of SUDO
staff members and human rights activists in general in Sudan.

Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam had already been detained previously. He was
arrested on 28 December 2003 by the National Security Agency upon return
from Darfur, where SUDO provides humanitarian aid to displaced civilians.
He was later charged with "crimes against the state" and the evidence
against him included Amnesty International public documents found in his
possession. Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience.
All charges against him were dropped in August 2004.

On 10 September 2004, Adib Abdel Rahman Yusuf, the head of the SUDO office
in Zalingei, West Darfur State, was arrested in the capital, Khartoum by
National Security and Intelligence Agency officers. He has since been held
incommunicado, without charge, at the political section of the National
Security and Intelligence Agency offices in Khartoum. Amnesty
International considers him a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for
the peaceful pursuit of his lawful occupation.