Nyala--On November 8, 2012 the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) arrested seven high school students from Al Imtidad neighborhood in Nyala, Darfur. They were tortured and released two days later.

NISS claims that the students leaked a document specific to NISS from the lounge area of NISS’s offices in Nyala. However, the real reason was the participation of those students in the student protests that took place in Nyala on July 31, 2012.

The students were brutally tortured by NISS, using unprecedented methods whereby, after being beaten, acid water was poured on their bodies, leaving scars and wounds behind.

Moreover, one of the detained students, Abu Al Gasim Mohamed Ismail was thrown, after he was tortured, in the Marshang area– a remote area outside Nyala.

The families of the detained students tried to open a police criminal case against the NISS officers who tortured their sons, but they were stopped by NISS from doing so. NISS threatened family members with “eliminating” their sons in the event that they attempt to file cases against NISS or its employees.

A NISS officer in Nyala, told the family members that there is no higher authority than NISS and therefore no one can hold it accountable or determine the course of its work. According to the NISS officer, “the only oversight on NISS is from God Almighty”.

Below are the names of the students who were arrested and tortured:

1. Abu Al Gasim Mohamed Ismail;

2. Mohamed Al Fatih Mohamed Adam;

3. Ayed Abdulla Ahmed;

4. Nizar Al Farai’a;

5. Mohamed Balla Mohamed;

6. Ahmed Awad; and

7. Amar Abdulla Tairab.