ProtectDefenders.eu was informed about the criminalisation case against Montaser Abdullah, a Sudanese lawyer and human rights defender who has offered legal assistance to survivors of gender-based violence, who was arrested in September 2024.
On 3 October 2024, Montaser Abdullah was brought before the Criminal Court in Port Sudan and was charged under article 53 of the 1991 Sudanese Criminal Code for alleged espionage. The human rights defender denied the charges and refused to confess, despite alleged coercion by the authorities. He currently faces a minimum of 20 years in prison, with the death penalty as the maximum sentence.
Since his detention in September 2024, Montaser Abdullah has reportedly been held in deplorable conditions: confined with others in a small cell, denied access to basic facilities, subjected to repeated beatings, and forced to remain unclothed. The human rights defender has been unjustly targeted due to his legitimate human rights work.
We have been informed that since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023, lawyers have been among those most targeted by both warring parties, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Armed Forces (SAF), including cases of arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture, and arbitrary killings. Among those murdered, we recall the cases of human rights defenders Mohammed Ahmed Kudia, Khamis Arabab, Tareg Hassan Yagoub Elmalik and El Sadeg Mohammed Ahmed Haroun. They were killed as a result of having witnessed the outbreak of a violent clash between the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group and Sudanese military forces while they were carrying out their human rights work in West Darfur.
ProtectDefenders.eu has also received information from Consortium partner RSF on the deteriorating state of Press Freedom in the country. Threats to journalists have intensified in recent years with the emergence of new militias and armed movements. Attacks, torture, harassment have been common practices against journalists perpetrate with impunity by both the regular army and the Rapid Support Forces. Women journalists, in particular, are subjected to intimidation, threats or reprisals. Since the start of the civil war on 15 April 2023, the premises of some media outlets have been attacked and looted, and attacks and abuses against journalists have increased significantly, forcing many of them to flee to neighbouring countries.
Sudan is ranked 156 out of 180 in RSF 2025 World Press Freedom Index.
