Sudanese Congress Party members and journalist detained

Four members of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party, as well as a correspondent of El Jareeda newspaper, were detained in En Nahud, West Kordofan, by elements of the security services on Tuesday afternoon. Their detention follows shortly after the arrest on Sunday of the party’s head, Ibrahim El Sheikh Abdel Rahman, as well as the party’s leader, Mohamed Yousif. Bakri Yousif, the spokesman for the party, told Radio Dabanga, that “a security service force using a heavily armed Land Cruiser arrested the four cadres at 1pm on Tuesday, as they emerged from the party’s headquarters in En Nahud, and  took them to an unknown destination”. They also detained Hassan Ishag, from El Jareeda newspaper. Authorities seized the print run of El Jareeda on Sunday, and gagged the paper’s columnist Zuheir El Saraj for an indefinite term. The four Sudanese Congress Party members detained are Abdel Rahim Osman, Mohamed Abdin, Marwan Arja, and Fathi Mohamed. On Monday, the authorities announced that party head Ibrahim El Sheikh Abdel Rahman will be tried in court in En Nahud at 9am on Thursday.File photo: Head of the Sudanese Congress Party, Ibrahim El SheikhRelated: Sudanese Congress Party leaders detained (9 June 2014) Sudanese authorities seize El Jareeda newspaper (9 June 2014)