Annual Prison Census 2010 - Sudan
Publisher | Committee to Protect Journalists |
Publication Date | 8 December 2010 |
Cite as | Committee to Protect Journalists, Annual Prison Census 2010 - Sudan, 8 December 2010, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/4d4977e2c.html [accessed 5 June 2023] |
Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Journalists in prison as of December 1, 2010
Sudan: 3
Ashraf Abdelaziz, Rai al-Shaab
Tahir Abu Jawhara, Rai al-Shaab
Abu Zar Ali al-Amin, Rai al-Shaab
Imprisoned: May 16, 2010
Deputy Editor Al-Amin and reporters Abu Jawhara and Abdelaziz were arrested when Sudanese security forces raided Rai al-Shaab's offices in Khartoum, confiscating documents and equipment, according to news reports. Authorities closed the newspaper, which was owned by the opposition Popular Congress Party.
The editor-in-chief, Yassin Omar al-Imam, told CPJ that the raid came shortly after the daily published an article claiming that Iran had constructed a weapons factory in Sudan intended to supply Islamist insurgents in Africa and the Middle East. The report has not been independently corroborated.
In July, a criminal court in Khartoum sentenced al-Amin to five years in prison, and Abdelaziz and Abu Jawhara to two years apiece, according to their lawyer, Abdelomneim Osman Idriss. He said the journalists had been convicted of "undermining the constitutional system" and "publishing false information." The three were being held in Kober Prison in Khartoum, a facility notorious for abusive treatment of inmates.