Sudan security confiscates newspaper over column on activist’s kidnapping
April 18, 2015 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) has seized copies of the al-Youm al-Tali daily newspaper on Saturday without giving reasons.
Abu al-Gasim’s daily column on Friday was titled “Who kidnapped Sandra?” in which he berated authorities over the circumstances of Kadouda’s abduction.
He demanded that the NISS and police reveal details of what he described as a “reprehensible crime”, adding that “the question of who kidnapped Sandra? does not tolerate the deafening silence [from the authorities]”.
Abu al-Gasim said that NISS agents came to the printing press early hours of Saturday morning and confiscated all printed copies without giving reasons.
Kadouda, the daughter of the late communist figure, Farouk Kadouda, was forcibly taken from her car by a group of unidentified men in Sudan’s twin capital city of Omdurman on 12 April.
She was reportedly on her way to an opposition sit-in at the National Umma Party (NUP) headquarters.
Her car was found abandoned nearby with the keys still in the ignition and her phone was switched off.
Three days later, the female activist was found badly beaten at a street in Khartoum.
Kadouda’s family filed a criminal case, alleging she was kidnapped by the NISS, but the latter denied taking her into custody and said they had no record of her detention.
Sudan’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression but laws subordinate to the constitution such as the National Security Forces Act of 2010 contains articles that can be potentially used to curtail press freedom and instigate legal proceedings against newspapers and individual journalists.
Sudanese newspapers frequently complain of fierce clampdown carried out by NISS that include confiscation, suspension and pre-publication censorship.
In February, NISS seized entire print runs of 14 newspapers in one day without stating the reasons for its decision.
(ST)