Opinion ID: 788295
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Evidence Submitted by El Sheikh.

Text: 3 At the hearing and in a lengthy affidavit supporting his asylum application, El Sheikh testified that his father is a wealthy businessman of Arab descent living in the capitol city of Khartoum. El Sheikh began college at East Nile University near Khartoum in 1996. Though not a member of any political party, El Sheikh was an active participant in informal student meetings called Corners of Discussion, which tended to focus on the civil war being waged by the Islamic government against tribal insurgents in the south of Sudan. Because El Sheikh's mother was a member of the Dinka tribe and he had lived and visited in the south, he spoke at many sessions, revealing the truth about what is happening in the war zone to groups of up to one hundred students concerned about the costs of the civil war and fearful of being conscripted to fight it. 4 El Sheikh testified that, in April 1999, security police came to break up a large group of student protesters. El Sheikh was arrested as a leader of the demonstration. He was taken to Kober prison where he was beaten with belts and batons. He and others were held without charges for seven days and then released when their families complained. El Sheikh further testified that, in December 1999, he was arrested again by the security police while distributing anti-government flyers outside the university. He was detained at a ghost house without charges for thirty-five days, enduring repeated beatings, inadequate food, and long periods in the sun without protection. He was released only after signing a statement promising not to distribute anti-government flyers or to speak at the Corners of Discussion again. After this lengthy detention, government security officers followed [his] every move and harassed and interrogated him until he quit school and decided to leave the country. 5 El Sheikh testified that his brother's friend in Sudan's passport office helped obtain a passport and visa to South Korea. The documents fraudulently described El Sheikh as a sales manager because travel documents were not issued to students. El Sheikh then traveled to South Korea, where he stayed for three months with a family friend and businessman. He eventually obtained a tourist visa to Honduras and took a plane from South Korea to Honduras with a stop in Los Angeles, intending to enter the United States at Los Angeles without valid entry documents and to seek asylum. He denied traveling to South Korea to work or to look for work. 6 El Sheikh submitted extensive background information on Sudan, including Department of State reports that confirmed the Sudanese government's practice of arresting students who opposed the government and detaining them without charges in ghost houses, where they were abused and beaten. El Sheikh also presented the testimony of a Sudanese native who was an organizer for an opposition political party at three universities in the mid-1990's, including East Nile University. Before coming to the United States in 1998, where he was granted asylum, this witness testified that he had met El Sheikh through this opposition work, directed El Sheikh to speak at various Political Corners, and saw El Sheikh actively speak against the government at such meetings. He also confirmed that the anti-government activists included students who were not affiliated with any opposition party. After leaving Sudan the witness heard that student activists were arrested at East Nile University, but he had no personal knowledge that El Sheikh was arrested in 1999. 7