Yasir Mirghani

Background and Work

Yasir Mirghani is a pharmacist and the head of the Sudanese Consumers Protection Society (SCPS), an organization he has led since its establishment in 1998. The Society works to protect communities from corporate abuse and to combat corruption in Sudan's commercial sector. It has intervened in cases involving price manipulation, unsafe goods, and exploitation by businesses operating without oversight.

Mirghani is also a member of the Confederation of Civil Society, a coalition that unites more than fifty human rights organizations across the country. The coalition has advocated for democratic transition, rule of law, and accountability in the years following the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

The Arrest

On 11 April 2023, Sudanese police arrested Yasir Mirghani at his residence in Khartoum. Officers confiscated his mobile phone and transported him to the Anti-Corruption Prosecution Authority. The Authority charged him under Article 177 of the Sudanese Criminal Act of 1991, which criminalizes breach of trust. The charge alleged that he had embezzled funds the Sudanese Consumers Protection Society received from the European Union in 2012, more than a decade earlier.

A judge set bail at €264,875, an amount precisely equal to the full sum of the EU grant. Mirghani's family could not afford the bail, and he remained in detention.

In late 2022, authorities had annulled the registration of the Sudanese Consumers Protection Society over the same allegations. His lawyers later stated that the Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission, the government body that filed the complaint, had previously attempted to prosecute the Society and its members on similar grounds. When those efforts collapsed, the Commission revived the matter using financial records from 2012.

Detention Conditions and Health

Mirghani was held in the Anti-Corruption Prosecution Authority's detention centre near the military headquarters in Khartoum. On 15 April 2023, violent clashes erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, engulfing the capital. The detention facility was located in one of the principal confrontation zones.

His defence counsel issued a public statement calling for his immediate release, warning that his life was in grave danger as fighting intensified around the facility. Inside, he was denied adequate food. He was also denied medication that he required for a medical condition, the details of which were not disclosed.

Release

On 18 April 2023, after seven days in detention, the Sudanese authorities released Yasir Mirghani on a personal guarantee. No bail payment was made. The charges remained formally active at the time of his release, and the case had not been resolved.

Legal and Political Context

The prosecution of Yasir Mirghani took place against the backdrop of Sudan's faltering democratic transition. Following the military coup of 25 October 2021, civilian institutions faced renewed repression. Civil society organizations, particularly those that had mobilized during the 2018–2019 revolution, became targets of administrative harassment, registration revocations, and criminal proceedings.

The Sudanese Humanitarian Aid Commission, which lodged the complaint against Mirghani, is a government body with a history of restricting the operations of independent civil society groups. The Commission has the authority to approve or cancel the registration of non-governmental organizations, and it has used that power to silence groups critical of state policy.

Mirghani's lawyers characterized the prosecution as judicial harassment designed to silence the Sudanese Consumers Protection Society and intimidate its leadership. The use of decade-old financial records to construct a criminal case, they argued, demonstrated the political motivation behind the charges.