Mass arrests, newspaper confiscations continue in Sudan

During the demonstrations on “Angry Friday”, security forces reportedly arrested a number of activists and protesters in Greater Khartoum and other Sudanese cities. According to sources speaking to Radio Dabanga, activists Mohamed Mumin El Ghali, Abbas Ibrahim Fadul, Amna Hamed, Muayid Shamseldin, Ahmed Khalifa, Mohamed Abdallah, Tasneem Abdallah and Ibtisam Sanhouri, along with a number of students, including Osman Shafee , El Radi El Day, Abdelgadir Adam Haroun, Yousif Adam and Omar Eisa, were arrested. In the district of Samrab in Khartoum North four members of a single family were arrested: Israa Abdelhafiz, Mohamed Ibrahim Abdelhafiz, Owab Abdelhafiz, and Safaa Abdelhafiz. In Atbara, River Nile State, security forces detained Mohamed Ali Ata and Hashim Babikr, members of the Popular Congress Party and El Bagir Ahmed Abdallah, member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North. Security forces transferred political prisoners from River Nile state to Shendi and Abu Hamed, and also to Khartoum. The most prominent among them are Sayed Ahmed Khatib, a leader of the Sudanese Communist Party, who was transferred to Khartoum; Mohamed Osman El Basha and Yahya Mohamed El Haj, transferred to Abu Hamed, and Mustafa Ahmed El Okaz to Shendi. During the demonstrations on Friday 18 people were arrested in Atbara. On Saturday, the security forces in Khartoum arrested the head of the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate, Dr Ahmed El Sheikh at his clinic in Central Khartoum. He was released after interrogations on the same day. El Sheikh had reported that the number of people killed during the demonstrations had reached 210 and that most of them were wounded in the head and chest. The UN Independent Expert and Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Sudan, Dr Masood Badrein has denounced the repression of the protests. He called on the government to carry out an urgent and transparent investigation into the violence and the killings, and to clearly charge the detainees or release them immediately. Newspapers Security forces confiscated Friday’s print run of El Yaum El Tali. On Sunday morning, all printed copies of El Jareeda newspaper were confiscated. Speaking to Radio Dabanga, the editor-in-chief of El Jareeda, Idris El Doma reported that “for the sixth time” security forces confiscated the 10,000 copies printed and ready for distribution. The financial losses are estimated at about SDG30,000 ($6,750), plus an amount of SDG13,000 ($2,925) of lost income from advertising. The confiscation of El Jareeda and other newspapers is, according to El Doma, implemented in the context of “disciplinary measures and retaliatory attacks” by the security forces on El Ayaam, El Qarrar and El Jareeda, that refused to appear after strict “security restrictions” were imposed on the press.The purpose of confiscating after printing, El Doma explained, is to exhaust the “resisting newspapers” financially. “It is, in fact, a direct and methodical liquidation, meant to kill the independent press.” Journalist Mohamed Ali Hamato and reporter Amal Habani, who was rearrested this week, are still in detention in an unknown place, without being charged. UN Independent Expert Dr Masoud Badrein has demanded the authorities put an end to the prosecution of journalists and the restrictions on the media. File photo Related: Demonstrations continue in Sudan’s capital – Sadig El Mahdi asks Bashir to leave (1 October 2013) Sudanese security forces launch campaign of mass arrests (29 September 2013) Sudan’s Security Services order press to ‘cooperate or shut down’ (25 September 2013)NISS gags Sudanese press on economic crisis (18 September 2013)