Sudanese Christian who prayed for neighbours falsely accused of fraud

A 33-year-old Christian man was arrested on false accusations of fraud in Al-Hasahisa in Sudans Gezira State on 21 November.

Abdalla Haroun travelled to Lebanon in 2020, and upon returning to Sudan in February 2022, professed to be a Christian. According to his lawyers, when he returned, he offered to pray for friends and family, including his mother who was blind and reportedly regained her sight.

Since that time, hundreds of people have visited Mr Haroun’s home seeking treatment for various ailments, and he has offered to pray for them. Mr Haroun has neither requested nor accepted funds from the people he has prayed for. His family, neighbours and members of the Al-Hasahisa resistance committee have accommodated and fed those who came for prayers.

CSW’s sources report that Wahabi extremists living in the area became unhappy with the interest being generated in the neigbourhood and filed a criminal case of fraud against Mr Haroun, who was arrested on 21 November. The sources have seen a video in which Mozamil Fagery, a known extremist cleric, complains that Mr Haroun, who he refers to as a ‘kafir’(infidel), escaped police detention, and that the police had pledged to arrest him.

The local prosecutor approved Mr Haroun’s release on bail on 28 November; however, he also informed Mr Haroun that there was another case registered against him at the Abu Ushab police station, and he would be transferred directly into their custody. Mr Haroun was released on 29 November after receiving another charge for fraud.

CSW Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘Mr Abdalla Haroun was deprived of his liberty on spurious grounds for over a week. The prolonged detention of a citizen who has conducted himself peacefully and who has merely offered personal prayers to those who sought him out is a fundamental violation of his right to freedom of religion or belief. We urge the authorities to ensure all fraud charges against him are dropped, and to end all discrimination on the grounds of religion, in line with Sudan’s Constitution and its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.’

Note to Editors:

1. Resistance committees are local grassroots networks sometimes referred to as neighbourhood committees. Many played a prominent role in the civil disobedience that led to the removal of former president Omar al Bashir in April 2019, and have remained active in the aftermath of the military coup of October 2021.