اليكس دي ووال يرثي عبدالسلام حسنMaking Sense of Sudan:In Memoriam: Abdel Salam Hassan

Quote: guardian.co.uk home Police investigate Sudan links in rights lawyer's killing Sandra Laville, crime correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 15 March 2010 18.56 GMT Detectives investigating the murder of a respected human rights lawyer are looking into whether there are links between his work helping torture victims in Sudan and his killing. Abdelsalam Hassan Abdelsalam, a lawyer and intellectual who had promoted human rights in Sudan for 30 years, was found stabbed to death in his south London flat early on Saturday morning. Police sources said they are probing any connections between his death and his work promoting human rights in Sudan and helping torture victims seek redress. Abdelsalam had been the victim of repeated criminal incidents in the months before his death, including burglaries, antisocial behaviour and harassment. This apparent targeting of the lawyer, who weighed 22 stone and walked with two sticks, is also being investigated. "We are looking at every aspect of his life, including his work as a human rights lawyer," said one police source. "He was quite a vulnerable individual as he walked with two sticks and weighed 22 stone and there were issues with where he lived." Detective Chief Inspector Damian Allain from the homicide and serious crime command at Scotland Yard said: "This was a brutal attack on a defenceless man, made more tragic as Abdel had devoted much of his life to combating abuse of human rights upon others." At least one address in the block of flats where he lived was known to police for its links to drugs and antisocial behaviour. Abdelsalam, 56, a divorced father of one, was found by a neighbour on Saturday in the hallway of his flat in Boone Street, Lewisham. The neighbour saw the door of his flat open at around 7am, and he was lying in the hallway, a source said. Abdelsalam had been repeatedly stabbed, police said. There were wounds to his stomach and torso, and defence wounds to his arms suggesting he put up a fierce struggle with his killer or killers. His death was caused by a stab wound to his leg which severed his femoral artery. For the last three years Abdelsalam had worked as Sudan expert for Redress, a south London rights organisation which helps torture victims around the world. He had fought for human rights in his country for more than 30 years. Colleagues at Redress said they had been concerned about his personal safety after he told them of the many criminal incidents he had suffered. Carla Ferstman, director of Redress, said: "There was a lot of concern here about his personal safety. He talked to us about what had been going on a great deal. He had been burgled and broken into several times. He talked to his colleagues about it a lot, he was not happy where he was living and his colleagues were concerned for him. "The work he did for us involved him working with civil society and the government in Sudan to promote law reform. But he was involved in the much more sensitive work of helping individual victims of torture to seek redress." His friends at work last saw Abdelsalam on Thursday. They were told of his death on Saturday afternoon. "We are like a family here. Everyone is shocked and devastated. We have known him for 10 years, and he is incredibly well respected in Sudan for his work. "He has helped many people through his work with torture victims." The lawyer was last seen on Friday afternoon and telephone records show he spoke to someone from his flat at 9pm on Friday night. It is understood Abdelsalam was known to social services in Lewisham and home help visited him once a week because of a leg injury he had suffered. Alex de Waal, an Africa expert at the Social Science Research Council in New York, who knew Abdelsalam well, said: "He was one of a remarkable generation of Sudanese intellectuals, who grew up and gained a first-rate education in provincial towns and who possessed a vivid curiosity about the complexities and paradoxes of their country. He was an unflinching advocate for human rights with a keen sense of the social and political context for making those rights real. He studied Islam deeply and mocked both the excesses of Islamist zealots, and those intimidated by them."