(RSF/IFEX) – Mahjoub Ourwa, the chairman of the independent Arabic-language daily “Al-Sudani”, and Noureddine Medani, the newspaper’s editor, were released on 29 November 2007 after spending 11 days in Omdurman prison, located north of Khartoum. The two journalists had been detained on 18 November for refusing to pay court-ordered fines of 10,000 Sudanese pounds (approx. […]
(RSF/IFEX) – Mahjoub Ourwa, the chairman of the independent Arabic-language daily “Al-Sudani”, and Noureddine Medani, the newspaper’s editor, were released on 29 November 2007 after spending 11 days in Omdurman prison, located north of Khartoum.
The two journalists had been detained on 18 November for refusing to pay court-ordered fines of 10,000 Sudanese pounds (approx. 3,500 euros) each for allegedly libelling the national intelligence service in a report about the arrests of four journalists.
“We decided not to pay the fines in order to send a message to the government that imprisonment for your views is not right,” Ourwa told Reuters. After they filed an appeal, the fine was reduced to 7,150 Sudanese pounds (approx. 2,500 euros) in total, which they agreed to pay.
