Rhino: Follow-up – The Emergency Lawyers Group has warned of an escalating dangerous pattern employed by security agencies, which involves sending fake photos to the families of citizens who have been forcibly disappeared, following the intensification of their demands to reveal the fate of their loved ones and their places of detention. The group described the move as a systematic attempt to mislead families, conceal the truth, and evade responsibility for the crime of enforced disappearance,

and said it foreshadows a wider use of disinformation tactics to falsify facts regarding the victims’ fate.

In a statement issued yesterday, the group confirmed that it had documented multiple instances in which photos of the forcibly disappeared were sent to their families, accompanied by claims that they were being held at Daqris Prison in Nyala and that the Rapid Support Forces were responsible for their arrest.

The statement added: (These narratives exploit the documented facts regarding Dagrais Prison and the grave violations committed there to lend credibility to fabricated stories, even though the information documented by the group confirms that these individuals were arrested by security forces in areas that were under the army’s full control at the time of their arrest, and no subsequent announcement was made regarding their transfer or handover to any other party).

He continued: (Sending fake photos to the families of the forcibly disappeared is not merely a form of misinformation; rather, it constitutes an extension of the crime of enforced disappearance, compounds the suffering of the families, and aims to obscure the truth, obstruct accountability, and evade legal responsibility for the victims’ fate.” The group also warns that tolerance of this type of practice will encourage the expanded use of deception and evidence tampering in cases of enforced disappearance, thereby undermining the right of victims and their families to know the truth).

The Emergency Lawyers Group demanded the immediate disclosure of the whereabouts of all those who have been forcibly disappeared, that they be allowed to communicate with their families and lawyers, disclosing the legal basis for their detention, ceasing all acts of misinformation, and launching an independent investigation to hold accountable anyone involved in the crime of enforced disappearance or in misleading the victims’ families and tampering with evidence regarding their fate.