Darfur activist tortured, charged with defamation over Facebook post

A 22-year-old activist named Seifeldin Ahmed was held, tortured, and charged with defamation over a Facebook post by Sudanese authorities in the Central Darfur capital of Zalingei on Wednesday.

The African Center for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) reported on Saturday that Ahmed was held in front if the of Zalingei university by a group of police detectives in the morning and taken to the Zalingei Police Station. On the way to the police station, he was beaten by the officers who used the butt of their guns and also stamped on him with their boots.

He was then moved to a newly built government building nearby, where he was tortured and racially berated by the officers.

Following this, he was taken back to the Zalingei Police Station, where the police detectives released him on bail later the same day.

Ahmed was charged with defamation under article 159 of Sudanese Penal Code, due to his Facebook post about four Christians who were arrested and charged with apostasy in Zalingei, following a police raid into their church.

Before his release, Ahmed was threatened over his large following on Facebook. A police detective reportedly told him that his ‘popularity would cost him’.