HUDO Centre Date: 28th February 2019 No.: H.K/UA/07/019 URGENT ACTION DEATH UNDER TORTURE IN SOUTH KORDUFAN/ SUDAN On 28th December 2018, NISS in Altartar arrested three people from the gold mine; two of them were tortured to death while the third one is still detained in a severe health condition. They were arrested for listening to Radio Dabanga. Mr. Hassan known by his nickname Hassan Talga (surname is unknown), about 40 years old was from Wad Banda of West Kordufan State. Mr. Faiez Abdalla Omer was 37 years old, former soldier and from South Darfur State as well as Mr. Mohamed Zakaria from Darfur about 40 years of age. On 28th December 2018, seven armed soldiers of National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), five in uniform while two in civilian clothes arrived at Um-Khallawi gold mine on two vehicles (Land Cruisers) without number plates and arrested the three people mentioned above. Mr. Hassan and Faiez were arrested from their mining location and Mohammed Zakaria was arrested from the mine’s market. The soldiers tied their arms and legs with ropes and took them to Altartar NISS office. On arrival at NISS office, the head commandant ordered the soldiers to torture them by saying that “Sakheinuhum/ Warm them”. They were beaten by many soldiers using black hose and sticks for more than three hours, as they were tortured, the soldiers kept shouting at them that “you were listening to radio Dabanga, you are Toraboura/ rebel”. The officer came to interrogate them at 10:00 PM and found when Mr. Hassan had passed away/ died, Mr. Faiez was unconscious/ faint and Mohammed Zakaria was in a bad/severe condition. The head officer ordered that all should be transported to Al-Abbasiya town. Before reaching Al-Abbasiya at Wakara village, Faiez also died. After reaching Al-Abbasiya NISS office, the head commandant of NISS Al-Abbasiya communicated with Al-Abbasiya hospital and the locality prosecutor to handle the official document for burial of the two dead bodies. The two bodies were buried on the following day/ morning (29th December 2019) by NISS at Al-Abbasiya grave yard. However, postmortem was not done. Mohammed Zakaria was transported by NISS to Khartoum but he was kept incommunicado. A reliable source informed HUDO that, Mr. Zakaria is in NISS custody at Kober prison in a bad health status and NISS denied his family access/ visit to him.