Detained editor-in-chief’s whereabouts unknown, concerns grow

The Sudanese security service has refused to inform the family of El Tayyar editor-in-chief Osman Mirghani about his whereabouts or allow them to visit him.

The security officers also refused to reveal the place of Mirghani's detention to his family.

Jihad, the son of Mirghani said in a press statement on Thursday : “The family is in a state of anxiety because they have no information about Osman Mirghani's health and the circumstances of his detention, despite the fact that a week has passed since he was detained.”

The family demanded the authorities to allow them a visit to reassure his health.

National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) agents detained Mirghani from the newspaper’s office in Khartoum on Friday, February 22.

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) and the Sudanese Journalists’ Network said this month that 79 journalists have been arrested since December, including some who have spent a month or more in the prisons and detention centres.

Last week the Sudanese Journalists’ Network said that the Sudanese press is the “first to pay the price after the declaration of a State of Emergency, starting with editor-in-chief of El Tayyar newspaper Osman Mirghani who was detained on Friday night and the banning of El Jareeda newspaper.”

The network expects an intensification of gagging of newspapers and journalists in the coming days. It has appealed to journalists to be more steadfast in their work.