A Sudanese court has sentenced a pharmacist to six years in prison after intelligence officers found a private phone conversation in which he expressed opposition to the country’s war and called for it to end.
The Criminal Court in El Obeid, North Kordofan, sentenced pharmacist Ahmed Suleiman Ahmed al-Waqi on Sunday, according to his lawyer, Osman Saleh.
Saleh told Darfur24 that officers from Sudan’s General Intelligence Service detained al-Waqi after searching his mobile phone following a dispute related to taxation.
During the search, SAF intelligence officers found a conversation in which the pharmacist discussed the war and expressed his view that the fighting should be stopped, the lawyer said.
A criminal case was subsequently opened against him on February 24 under several provisions of Sudan’s 1991 Criminal Act.
Saleh said El Obeid Criminal Court judge Ayman Abdelkarim convicted al-Waqi under Article 51 of the Criminal Act, as well as Articles 19 and 24 of Sudan’s 2008 Cybercrime Law.
The court imposed a three-year prison sentence under Article 51, effective from the date of his arrest, and ordered the confiscation of his assets. It also sentenced him to two additional years under Article 19 of the Cybercrime Law and another year under Article 24.
The sentences are to be served consecutively, bringing the total prison term to six years.
A colleague of al-Waqi, who asked not to be identified, told Darfur24 that the pharmacist was arrested inside his pharmacy following an earlier dispute with tax collectors in February.
The dispute reportedly concerned taxes imposed on an oil-processing facility owned by al-Waqi. Tax officials demanded payments for 2023 and 2024, but he refused, arguing that production at the facility had been suspended during those years.
The case highlights the risks faced by Sudanese civilians over political expression during the continuing war, with al-Waqi’s conviction stemming in part from comments discovered on his private phone calling for an end to the conflict.
