Sudan journalist re-arrested as rights group calls for end of harassment

May 16, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The ordeal of Sudanese journalist Faisal Mohamed Salih continued on Tuesday when he was re-arrested and arraigned before the state security court on the charge of “disobeying law men.”

Salih has already been subjected to a ten-day period of harassment by the National Security and Intelligence Services (NISS) against the background of comments he made in an interview with the Qatari-based Al-Jazzera TV regarding the conflict in Sudan’s border region of South Kordofan.

He was detained briefly on Tuesday last week after he quit complying with NISS orders to report to their office on daily basis for an investigation that, according to him, happened only once while he spent the rest of the days sitting at the office’s reception.

The prominent columnist of the privately owned daily newspaper Al-Akhbar was arrested again on Tuesday’s morning.

Hours later, he appeared at the court of state security which charged him under article 94 of the Penal Criminal Code which pertains to “disobeying law men.”

This particular charge may carry a sentence of one month in prison plus a fine.

Meanwhile, global human rights group Amnesty International (AI) issued a statement demanding that the Sudanese authorities cease “relentless harassment” of journalists and media organisations.

AI’s Sudan researcher Baptiste Gallopin charged that the Sudanese authorities “are deploying a wide array of coercive measures against individuals and media organizations to discourage or prevent independent reporting and critical comment.”

Gallopin was further quoted as saying that “the re-arrest of Faisal Saleh is a smack in the face for free speech and the Sudanese authorities must ensure that the NISS ends these constant attempts to silence any form of dissent.”

AI’s statement also said that Al-Maydan newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Sudanese Communist Party, has had its copies confiscated by NISS agents at the printing press for the fifth time in five weeks, adding that the move had put the publication’s financial future “in jeopardy.”

(ST)