(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested over the lengthy interrogation of journalist Faisal el Bagir, the organisation’s correspondent in Sudan, on 8 June 2003, upon his return from Athens, Greece, where he had attended an international conference of the future of news media in Iraq. “The interrogation was clearly aimed at intimidating the journalist and human […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has protested over the lengthy interrogation of journalist Faisal el Bagir, the organisation’s correspondent in Sudan, on 8 June 2003, upon his return from Athens, Greece, where he had attended an international conference of the future of news media in Iraq.
“The interrogation was clearly aimed at intimidating the journalist and human rights defender,” RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said. “We call on the Sudanese authorities to put a stop to this kind of harassment, which is completely unjustified.”
On his arrival at Khartoum airport in the early hours of 8 June, el Bagir was detained for two hours by airport security officials who searched his bags and confiscated his passport and several newspapers. They also told him to report later the same morning to the National Security Office’s Political Affairs Department. There, he was questioned about his journalistic activities, his political views, his trip to Athens, his links with the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (for which he works), the Khartoum Centre for Human Rights and RSF.
Airport security officials previously arrested el Bagir at his home on 7 October 2002, upon his return from Cairo (see IFEX alert of 9 October 2002). He was interrogated for several hours about an international freedom of expression conference he had attended a short while earlier in Dakar. In 2002, the journalist was summoned by security officials several times for questioning about articles he had written on human rights issues and about his links with human rights organisations.
