Sudanese journalists receive death threat – watchdog

December 8, 2007 (PARIS) – A media rights watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, said yesterday that five Sudanese journalists had received death threats.

The press advocacy group said death threats made on 4 December were directed against Faisal El-Bagir of the Arabic-language weekly Al-Midan and four journalists employed by the Arabic-language daily al-Sahafa – Abdelmoneim Suleiman, al-Haj Warraq, al-Tahir Satti and Rabbah al-Sadiq al-Mahdi.

The Five Sudanese journalists told a press conference that an anonymous individual had delivered a death threat to one of them by phone.

Abdelmoneim Suleiman, the journalist who received the phone call on December 4, said that the individual, who was calling from Chad, told him that someone in Sudan had offered him $22,000 to assassinate him and other four colleagues.

The caller further said the assassination had been ordered by elements outside Sudan because of the journalists’ opposition to the government and their support for the deployment of an international force in Darfur.

Reporters Without Borders requested the Sudanese government to condemn this threats and to conduct a probe to establish the origin of the threatening call. It also urged the government of Chad to provide the necessary support for a successful investigation.

The five journalists have asked the authorities to conduct an investigation.

(ST)