Sudan bans reporting on alleged coup plot

Thu Jul 19, 2007 8:42AM EDT
By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, July 19 (Reuters) - Sudan's justice ministry has banned all media reporting on the case of 17 people accused of trying to overthrow the government, the latest in a string of such restrictions.

Local papers on Thursday said the prosecutor general had issued a decree "banning all media outlets, written or broadcast, from any reporting or comment on the attempted sabotage so as to not influence the course of justice".

State security officials said on Sunday they had arrested 17 people, including opposition politicians and retired army officers, for plotting to overthrow the government and create chaos in the capital.

Similar reporting restrictions were imposed on the cases of the beheading of Sudanese journalist Mohamed Taha last year and demonstrations in the northern region of Kajbar last month where police killed four people.

Justice Minister Mohamed al-Mardi told Reuters the practice was similar to laws from Sudan's ex-colonial power, Britain.

"We said there shouldn't be any comments about the investigation or incident so as not to prejudice the investigation," he said, quoting Article 115 of the penal code.

Sudan's new constitution, drafted after a January 2005 peace deal ended Africa's longest civil war in Sudan's south, enshrines press freedom. Human rights observers say while "some degree of press freedom" followed the deal, there have been numerous instances of censorship and harassment of the press.

Independent daily al-Sudani newspaper was temporarily closed in February after it reported on the beheading of journalist Taha. The justice ministry accused it of breaching criminal law.

Article 115 of Sudan's penal code states: "Any person who intentionally does anything to influence any fair and just legal procedure or any legal matter or procedure connected with it shall be punished by three months in prison or a fine or both."

Deputy head of the parliamentary judicial committee, Ghazi Suleiman, said the ministry could not prevent any publication.

"Let them comment and then instigate a case against them," Suleiman said. "There is nothing in the law which gives the... justice ministry the right to stop comment in the newspapers."

Sudan's state security organ, which made the arrests for the alleged coup attempt, invited media to a briefing and told them they were allowed to publish details they had divulged.

Journalist Mujaheed Abdullah from the opposition al-Rai al-Shaab newspaper was detained without charge last month, a move colleagues said they suspected was linked to the Kajbar killings. Authorities say it was not linked to his reporting.

"We are asking for his release or for him to be charged with something and brought before a court of law," his lawyer Karrar Siddig said. Abdullah's detention has entered its fourth week and neither his family nor his lawyer have been able to see him.





© Reuters