Zalingei, July 17(Darfur24) Young people accused of apostasy in Zalingei city said that their lives are in danger because of the repeated attacks on their families’ homes by armed men who are looking for them, and homes are being thrown with stones by some angry citizens.
Muhammad Haroun, one of the nine young men accused of apostasy, told Darfur 24 that , they are at risk of being killed by unidentified gunmen. He said that gunmen kept entering their homes without permission, without knocking on doors, and at different times of the day.
He stated that armed men stormed the church at night and found a woman, flogged her and ordered her to leave the church.
He added: “Since we were released from jail on bail, we are being pursued by the families, which prompted us to disappear to avoid violence directed against us”.
He added that they are suffering in how to obtain their personal needs due to the circumstances of the disappearance and their inability to move normally in the city of Zalingei.
While one of the defendants, Tariq Adam Abdullah, said that he had suffered from fever symptoms in the past few days and could not go to the hospital until his family had to bring malaria medicines without examining or seeing a doctor, which could put his life at risk.
Meanwhile, the pastor of the Catholic Church in western Sudan, “Abuna Al-Amin,” described the policemen storming the church precincts to arrest worshipers and taking the church’s belongings as a violation of religious freedom.
Al-Amin told Darfur24 that the harassment against these young people aims to intimidate them, and send signals to the rest of the community that anyone who wants to convert to the Christian religion will be his fate, and stressed that Article 126 of the Sudanese Criminal Code “the apostasy article” does not apply to the case of these young people.
The authorities in Central Darfur accused nine young men of apostasy from Islam and wrote a complaint against them under Article 126 of the Sudanese Criminal Code, before arresting four of them and placing them in prison for eight days.