Director of “The Khartoum Monitor” arrested

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, RSF protested the arrest of Alfred Taban, director of the independent daily “The Khartoum Monitor”. “This is the fifth time that a journalist has been arrested since the beginning of the year,” recalled RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. He called for the […]

(RSF/IFEX) – In a letter to Minister of the Interior Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, RSF protested the arrest of Alfred Taban, director of the independent daily “The Khartoum Monitor”. “This is the fifth time that a journalist has been arrested since the beginning of the year,” recalled RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. He called for the journalist’s immediate release.

According to information collected by RSF, on 12 April 2001, Taban, director of the daily “The Khartoum Monitor” and the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) correspondent in the country, was arrested. He is being held at army headquarters under the emergency law, which empowers the Security Authority to detain people for up to ninety days without charge. The journalist was arrested as he tried to attend a press conference held by church leaders in downtown Khartoum following the cancellation of an Easter ceremony on 11 April by police. Several Christians were injured and arrested in clashes between security forces and worshippers who were protesting a government order to move an Easter service to a suburb.

“The Khartoum Monitor” has been critical of the government’s human rights record, particularly in the southern part of the country, where rebels have been fighting the Khartoum government since 1983. On 24 February, Taban and Albino Okeny, editor-in-chief of “The Khartoum Monitor”, were arrested for several hours (see IFEX alert of 27 February 2001). On 3 February, Amal Abbas and Hassan Ibrahim, respectively editor-in-chief and journalist with the daily “Al Raï al-Akhar”, were sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. They were released on 19 February pending appeal (see IFEX alerts of 1 March, 27 and 5 February 2001).