Suleiman Sandal (often rendered Suleiman Sandal Haggar) is a prominent Sudanese legal and political figure whose career spans policing, the judiciary, law practice, academia, and armed-movement leadership. A founding executive of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and its current chairman (since 2023), he has held senior military and political posts and participated in peace talks and security arrangements. He now serves as interior minister in the Founding Government (TASIS).
A long-time JEM leader, elected chair at the movement’s extraordinary conference in Addis Ababa on Aug. 30, 2023, amid an open split with the Gibriel Ibrahim wing; he pitched a neutral line in the SAF–RSF war and emphasized civilian protection.
Since late 2024 he has argued for a “revolutionary government” operating inside Sudan—not in exile—framed as restoring December Revolution legitimacy, a signal toward an internal-order, hard-security portfolio. Publicly, Sandal has criticized the Port Sudan junta and cast TASIS as a vehicle for democratic transition on his verified channels.
Biographical Arabic profiles note Darfuri origins (al-Tina), law studies in Khartoum, a stint as a police officer, and decades in JEM’s political/organizational ranks—background that dovetails with policing, public security and tribal mediation challenges an interior minister would face.
• Background: Police officer turned judge, then lawyer and legal scholar
• JEM roles: From co-founder to deputy commander-in-chief, intelligence/security chief, commander-in-chief, political affairs secretary, and chairman (2023)
• Security track: Deputy chair of the Higher Military Committee for Security Arrangements since 2021; led Sudan-related security arrangements in 2020
• Legal/academic work: Lawyer and notary in Sudan; lecturer at the University of Juba; adjunct at the Arab Academy in Denmark; certified Norwegian legal translator; member of the Norwegian Bar Association
Career timeline
• Police officer, 1991–2001; briefly served as a judge
• Lawyer and contracts notary, from 2002
• Lecturer, University of Juba; adjunct professor, Arab Academy in Denmark; certified Norwegian translator
• Student leadership: Speaker, Cairo University (Khartoum branch) Students’ Legislative Council (1987); head of the Darfur Students’ Association (1988)
• JEM co-founder and executive leadership, 2003 →
• Deputy commander-in-chief, 2008
• Secretary for Security and Intelligence, 2009; commander-in-chief, 2010
• Secretary for Political Affairs, 2012 and again in 2018
• Secretary for Presidency Affairs, 2017
• Chair, Security Arrangements Committee, 2020
• Deputy chair, Higher Military Committee for Security Arrangements, 2021 →
• Chairman, Justice and Equality Movement, 2023
• Member, TASIS leadership council; appointed interior minister
Areas of expertise
• Criminal, civil, and international law; transitional justice and conflict resolution
• Security sector reform, intelligence, and national security policy
• Political and security negotiations; peace-process design and implementation
• Legal translation (Arabic–Norwegian) and higher-education teaching in international/humanitarian law
• Rebuilding and modernizing security institutions
Sandal’s mix of policing and legal training, his command roles within JEM, and his hands-on experience with security arrangements position him to tackle internal order, police reform, and deconfliction with armed actors. His legal and academic grounding also suggests an emphasis on due process, transitional-justice concerns, and institutional restructuring within the security sector.
