Khartoum denies involvement in Sudanese blogger arrest by Saudi police

September 7, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s government has distanced itself from the arrest of the Sudanese journalist, Waleed al-Hussein al-Dood who was detained by the Saudi authorities more than a month ago.

According to the Sudanese non-governmental Journalists for Human Rights (JHR) network, al-Dood, founder of the independent news website Al-Rakoba, was taken by security agents on July 23rd from his home in the city of al-Khobar and was transferred to the city of Dammam.

Rights groups and activists are concerned that Khartoum was behind al-Dood’s arrest and that Riyadh could actually send him back to his home country.

However, Sudan’s ambassador to Riyadh, Abdel-Hafiz Ibrahim, told Al-Sudani newspaper on Monday that the Sudanese government has nothing to do with the detention of al-Dood.

“There is no coordination between the Sudanese and the Saudi authorities on extraditing Waleed al-Hussein,” he added.

He added that al-Dood was arrested for violating regulation and laws of the Saudi Kingdom.

It is worth mentioning that JHR pointed out that al-Dood told his family that he is being well-treated and that his immigration status is not in question.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) coordinator for the Middle East, Munir Zaarour, has asked Sudan’s Jorunalists Union (SJU) about al-Dood’s conditions.

In a phone conversation, he demanded the secretary of freedoms at the SJU, Mohamed Abdel-Gadir, to seek to release al-Dood or bring him to a fair trial if he had violated the law.

But SJU’s secretary of membership affairs, Merghani Younis, told the SudaniNet website that al-Dood is not a member of the SJU, saying he might be a blogger but not a registered journalist.

He pointed to ongoing efforts to establish a council for rationing and organizing internet blogging and providing the necessary legislations and controls.

The editorial board of Al-Rakoba has called upon the Saudi authorities to release al-Dood , asking them not to send him back to Sudan and to allow him to select another country if the Kingdom decided to expel him.

Al-Rakoba started off in 2005 as a discussion forum but has eventually transformed into a news website that carries stories and op-eds that are fiercely critical of the Sudanese government.

The website has attracted wide readership even inside Sudan despite intermittent government moves to block it.

(ST)