On August 29, 2017, Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir granted a pardon to Mudawi Ibrahim Adam, an engineering professor at the University of Khartoum, who was charged with six offences, some of which were punishable by death.
As we reported Mudawi Ibrahim Adam was arrested by security forces in December 2016 as part of a crackdown against opposition leaders and activists. Prosecutors had accused Ibrahim Adam of “being among activists who were running a criminal organization and engaged in spying and intelligence activities for foreign embassies.” He and others were also accused of "publishing lies about (government forces) using chemical weapons" while fighting rebels in the country's conflict zones.
On Tuesday, however, President Bashir issued a presidential decree pardoning Ibrahim Adam and five others.
"I am issuing a decision to pardon . . . Dr Mudawi Ibrahim Adam," Bashir said in the decree and quoted by the official SUNA news agency.
"He has just arrived home and is in good health," his wife Sabah Adam told The Daily Mail.
Mudawi Ibrahim Adam is an internationally recognized human rights defender who was the winner of the inaugural 2005 Front Line Defenders Award in 2005. He is a professor of engineering at the University of Khartoum and runs his own company. He is also the founder and chairman of the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO).
Many global rights groups including Endangered Scholars Worldwide condemned the Sudanese authorities over his arrest. We welcome the news of Ibrahim Adam's release with great relief and call for his protection and security.
Endangered Scholars Worldwide is concerned about arbitrary imprisonment and prosecution of professors, scholars, and students in retaliation for the nonviolent exercise of their rights to free expression and association. We view the protection of academic freedom as a fundamental duty of all countries, and we urge the Sudanese government to respect and protect academic freedom, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly in Sudan.