In 2011, Boshi was arrested and detained by the NISS for several weeks after having publicly criticised an adviser of the president of Sudan. He was also arrested and detained for more than a month in 2013 during the nationwide crackdown by the authorities on demonstrations. In both occasions, he was subjected to ill-treatment and held in inhumane conditions of detention. Following such abuses, in 2017 Boshi moved to Cairo to seek asylum with the UNHCR.
Boshi was arrested in Cairo on October 6, 2018 by members of the Egyptian security services at his apartment, and was brought to an unknown location. On October 9, the NISS informed his family that he had been sent back to Sudan and was in their custody, but they refused to disclose his whereabouts.
On November 8, the NISS announced that the state security prosecution had opened a criminal case against Boshi, and had charged him with several offences, including “undermining the constitutional order”, “waging war against the state” and “espionage”, which are punishable with the death penalty. Following this announcement, his family went to the police station located inside the state security prosecutor’s office, but the police officers informed them that he was not under their custody.
On November 19, the family submitted a complaint to the first deputy prosecutor of the State Security Prosecution, but to no avail.
His family was able to visit him at the NISS detention centre at Kober Prison in Khartoum on November 27. However, Boshi told his relatives that he had not been able to identify the location of the place of detention in which he was held because the NISS had handcuffed and blindfolded him to transfer him to Kober Prison to visit his family.
On December 7, Boshi was brought before the state security prosecution without the presence of his lawyer, who was informed of the meeting only after it took place.
Boshi reappeared on December 17, 2018, when his mother was able to visit him at the police station located inside the state security prosecution’s building in Al Amarat neighbourhood in Khartoum.
Further to a communication sent to the state of Egypt and the state of Sudan by the WGAD, on April 15, 2019, Boshi was released and all charges against him dropped by decision of the Transitional Military Court. On November 21, 2019, the WGAD adopted Opinion No. 77/2019 in relation to the case, stating that Boshi had been detained arbitrarily in both Egypt and Sudan and calling for him to be rewarded compensation and other reparations.
The WGAD further stated that “the complementarity of the actions between the two States and the continuity of the detention make it logical that the two share responsibility for the violations. As a result, the two States have a joint / shared obligation to provide reparation.”
