January 17, 2023 (KHARTOUM) – The signatories of the framework agreement held a conference from January 9-12 to consider a roadmap to renew the dismantling of the Islamist regime of Omer al-Bashir.
The participants recommended abolishing the two-stage appeal mechanism: administrative and judicial appeals. Instead, the Empowerment Removal Committee (ERC) should set up internal mechanisms to review and scrutinize its final and binding decisions.
Why this position
The recommendations, which are now under the drafting process, reflect the rejection of the pro-democracy forces to involve the judiciary in the process. They suspect its impartiality as the Islamist judges as well as other Islamists in the civil service systematically cancelled the ERC’s decisions after the October 25, 2021 coup and become an administrative lever for the military role.
Therefore, the conference recommended the dismissal of all Supreme Court judges, heads of prosecutions, senior officials of the judiciary, the general attorney’s office, and the ministry of justice. In addition, they called to review the intermediate and lower leadership of these institutions.
After the collapse of the former regime in 2019, the power-sharing deal with the military led to an agreement providing that only the corrupt and unqualified Islamist elements of the ousted regime should be removed to end the empowerment of the formerly ruling National Congress Party and its control of the civil service and public companies.
Tariq Ziyada Siwar al-Dahab, a journalist and political activist who participated in the conference confirmed to Sudan Tribune that the “deep suspicion towards the judiciary” prevailed during the conference.
“Most of the participants believe that the judges should be the first in the spotlight of the ERC. Therefore, they are not qualified to review the Committee’s decisions,” he said.
“The prevailing trend was to recommend that the new ERC be supra-constitutional, affiliated to the legislative body, without any link to executive or judicial authorities,” he added, pointing out that its leaders and staff members should be independent legal experts. Indeed, the roadmap provides to avoid having politicians unless they are qualified jurists.
Legitimacy of this new role
The recommendation of the conference questions the constitutionality of this new particular position the participants want to give to the committee.
The legal expert, Counselor Ahmed Kamal al-Din, told Sudan Tribune that this situation would be inconsistent with international law in terms of justice and the independence of the judiciary, despite the goodwill of the conference.
He underscored that the judiciary has jurisdiction over any issue of a judicial nature and has the authority to decide whether an issue submitted by a party for its decision is within its competence or not.
He stressed that he understands the position of the conference from the current judiciary “But any process of replacing judges (by another institution) is a bias that breaches the independence of the judiciary.”
Some international legal experts provided by the Trilateral Mechanism, which facilitates the political process, told the 4-day meeting about the need for a transparent and meticulous process that would be done by qualified people.
They further called to carefully avoid cut corners and any attempt to achieve things in the fastest way. Instead, the new committee, which may last for years beyond the transition, must strictly follow the legal and judicial rules to avoid having their decisions challenged and ultimately annulled.
In a statement released on January 17, Khalid Omer Youssif, the official spokesman of the political process said the drafting committee for the recommendations of the conference continues its works.
He added that the committee proofreads the recommendations of the conference before publishing and converting them to dispositions to be included in the final agreement.
The political forces which have to approve the final text prepared by the drafting committee have to take the final decision on this issue.
Before the suspension of the ERC by the military leader immediately after the coup, the dismantlement had been criticised by several political leaders including several groups of the Hamdok government.
(ST)
