Sudan authorities leave Ahmed Haroun arrest reports unconfirmed

Sudanese authorities had issued no official confirmation by Nov. 10 of reports that Ahmed Haroun, one of 3 former regime figures wanted by the ICC, had been arrested, Dabanga reported in an article.

The uncertainty matters because Haroun appeared on Sudan Podcast on Friday, his first recorded public appearance since leaving Kober Prison in the early days of the war that began on April 15, 2023.

Dabanga said politicians and activists questioned reports carried on Sunday by international media, including the Associated Press and Reuters, which cited unnamed sources saying Haroun had been arrested. The article said no confirmation had come from the authorities, the prosecution, the justice minister, the attorney-general or the police.

Haroun chairs the dissolved National Congress Party and is described by Dabanga as a prominent Islamist movement leader. He had been held at Kober Prison with ousted President Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir and former defence minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein.

Khalid Omar Youssef, a leading figure in the Sudanese civil democratic coalition Sumud, described the reported events as “a crude, transparent, and badly staged farce,” saying they were intended to avoid regional and international pressure. “El Burhan did not discover Haroun's presence by chance,” Youssef said, referring to Sovereignty Council chairman Abdel Fattah El Burhan.

Yasser Arman, a civil coalition figure and leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement - Revolutionary Democratic Current, questioned whether Haroun had been detained at the Salam Rotana Hotel. Arman wrote that “informed sources say the interview took place at the Salam Rotana,” but Dabanga did not report official confirmation of that location.

Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese legal group, said several former regime figures left Kober Prison after the war began and that authorities had not given sufficient legal explanation about their release, the status of criminal proceedings or measures to secure their court appearances. The group said it had information that some wanted figures were moving and residing in areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces, without disclosure of their legal status.

The legal group called on Sudanese authorities, especially the SAF leadership, to disclose the legal status, release circumstances and whereabouts of Haroun, Al Bashir and Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein. It also called for steps to arrest them and hand them over to the International Criminal Court.

The ICC wants all three men over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity; Al Bashir also faces allegations of genocide. Dabanga said Haroun also faced domestic criminal proceedings, including case No. 2868 of 2006 concerning crimes in Darfur and investigations into the killing of protesters during Sudan’s December Revolution of 2018.

In the podcast interview, Haroun blamed a security committee led by former vice-president Awad Ibn Auf and former intelligence chief Salah Abdullah, known as Gosh, for the fall of the former regime. He said the dissolved National Congress Party’s relationship with El Burhan was not based on party or organisational affiliation, according to Dabanga.

Haroun also proposed a hybrid political system and proportional representation, an electoral model that allocates parliamentary seats according to parties’ vote shares rather than geographic constituencies. Dabanga said Haroun has remained at liberty since leaving prison, moving between cities and states under Sudanese army control.