Sudanese journalist arrested without charge

Dec 31, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese security forces jailed without charge a journalist accused of slandering President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in a move some parliamentarians called unconstitutional.

Zuheir Sirraj, a columnist for the al-Sahafa daily paper, was detained on Friday night.

A source in state security said he had violated the law by writing an article saying the president did not care about the country’s problems and citizens. But no charges had yet been brought against him.

“This is a clear human rights violation and it is regrettable that it is coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the independence of Sudan,” said Yasir Arman, a member of parliament for the former southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the movement’s former spokesman.

Arman and other SPLM officials were to hold a news conference on Saturday to demand Sirraj’s immediate release.

“It is a violation of the new constitution,” he told Reuters. Sudan celebrates 50 years of independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule on Jan. 1, 2006.

Sudan’s government signed a peace deal in January 2004 with the SPLM ending more than two decades of civil war in the south. Under the deal a coalition government was formed and a new constitution passed.

Newspapers are often closed or suspended in Sudan, although the authorities deny censorship.

A source in state security said Sirraj had violated the law. “He was arrested yesterday because he wrote an article about the president of the republic… and he used unsuitable words,” the source said.

But Arman said Sirraj was jailed for expressing his opinion and demanded his immediate release.

He added the state security forces had no constitutional powers to arrest citizens and the matter should be dealt with by the correct legal channels.

(Reuters)