Sudan finance minister orders arrest of journalist over graft inquiry

May 18, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan finance minister Ali Mahmud has been embroiled in controversy after he reportedly ordered the arrest of a local journalist who questioned him on evidence showing that he had authorized an overly large salary to one of his subordinates.

The subtly pro-government daily newspaper Al-Sudani reported on Wednesday that its investigative reporter Abu Al-Gasim Ibrahim was placed under arrest for five hours at the behest of the finance minister, Ali Mahmud, whose personal guards later turned the journalist over to the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) until he was eventually released without charges.

According to the paper, the story began when Ibrahim met the minister and questioned him on the authenticity of a job contract signed by the minister and showing that the general manager of the Khartoum Stock Exchange is earning a monthly salary exceeding by two times the announced salary of the country’s President Omar Al-Bashir’s.

Al-Sudani recounted that the minister reacted angrily to the journalist question and ordered his security guards to arrest him immediately.

The Network of Sudanese Journalists (NSJ), a local press-freedom watchdog group, strongly denounced Al-Sudani’s journalist arrest, saying it is a dangerous precedent which violates the rights of journalists in doing their work to protect the country’s resources from being squandered.

NSJ called on the presidency of the republic to investigate the journalist’s arrest, citing articles guaranteeing press freedoms in Sudan’s interim constitution of 2005.

(ST)