Former Sudanese National Congress Party chairman Ahmed Haroun has tested positive for COVID-19 in prison, according to a family member who is asking that Haroun be placed under house arrest so he can receive better care.
Sudanese health authorities have not confirmed the status of Haroun, an ally of ousted president Omar al-Bashir.
Hossam Ahmed Haroun, one of Ahmed Haroun’s sons, told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that his father tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday and has been moved to a police hospital in eastern Khartoum.
Underlying health problems
Hossam Ahmed Haroun says his father has underlying health problems.
“My father is diabetic and recently had an operation for meniscus on his knee and his health situation had been very bad. All of them [detainees] are above age 65 and almost all of them are suffering from different underlying diseases,” he said.
Hossam Ahmed Haroun said family members wrote several letters to Sudan’s transitional authorities two months ago requesting that their father and other political detainees be released and kept under house arrest during the pandemic so they could access better health services.
So far, he says, they have heard nothing back.
“We hold the head of the Sudan Sovereign Council, the prime minster and the public prosecutor with full responsibility of the health situation of our father and his fellow detainees,” he told VOA.
No charges filed
Ahmed Haroun and other officials from Bashir’s administration have been held in Khartoum’s Kober Central Prison since last April when military leaders ousted Bashir from power. Most detainees have never been charged in a court of law.
Ahmed Abdallah Al Bashir, the former president’s nephew, said he worries about his uncle’s health, “and to make matters worse, since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in this country, we were not allowed to visit them. We are really worried about their health,” he told South Sudan in Focus.
Both Hossam Ahmed Haroun and Ahmed Abdallah Al Bashir are calling on the transitional government to try the detainees in a court of law or release them. They urged national and international rights groups to intervene on behalf of political detainees in Sudan.