13 May, 2016
H.E. Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir
President of Sudan
Office of the President
People's Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
Via e-mail:
Your Excellency,
We write to you representing an organization of over 100 parliamentarians, of all faith
backgrounds, from 60 countries, committed to the promotion and protection of the freedom
of thought, conscience, religion and belief for all people. We had written to you in a letter
dated February 22
nd
, 2016, regarding the imprisonment of two Sudanese men – Mr. Telahoon
Nogosi Kata Rata and Rev. Abduraheem Kodi Taour – on the grounds of merely expressing
their Christian faith. We have enclosed a copy of our correspondence for reference.
We wish to express our gratitude to the Sudanese prosecutor for the release of Mr. Rata on
the 10
th
of May. It is our hope that Mr. Rata will now be free to practice the beliefs of his
choosing without intimidation or interference by government authorities.
We must now appeal once more for the release of Reverend Hassan Abduraheem Kodi
Taour, who remains in custody under the care of the Attorney General. In addition to still
being deprived of access to his family, the charges laid against Mr. Taour – namely those
related to undermining national security – are serious and carry the death penalty. We
continue to fear that the charges laid against him are unsubstantiated and are an attempt by
Sudanese authorities to draw attention away from a troublesome record of religious
persecution. The continued imprisonment of Rev. Taour is just the latest offence in
increasingly-frequent arrests of religious minorities for no more than their faith.
As was the case with Mr. Rata, we believe Rev. Taour was originally detained simply for
choosing to manifest his inalienable right to religious belief.
We ask you to personally consider our appeal and ensure Rev. Taour’s timely release, ever-
mindful of Sudan’s international legal obligations under Article 18 of the
International
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