His Excellency Lieutenant General Omar Hassan al-Bashir
President of the Republic of Sudan
President’s Palace
PO Box 281, Khartoum, Sudan

Fax: + 24911 783223

Vienna, 9 October 2002

Your Excellency

The International Press Institute (IPI), the global network of editors, media executives and leading journalists, is deeply disturbed by the state of Sudan’s attempts to intimidate Faisal el Bagir, a journalist and member of the Sudan Organisation Against Torture (SOAT).

According to the information before IPI, el Bagir was arrested at his home in Khartoum on 7 October 2002, shortly after he arrived back to Sudan from a visit to Dakar, where he attended an international meeting on freedom of expression organised by the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), and a subsequent visit to Cairo. He was arrested by the airport security forces and handed over to the political security unit for interrogation.

Security officers questioned el Bagir about the IFEX meeting and his visit to Cairo and confiscated his passport. El Baghir was released over five hours later and ordered to report to the offices of the security unit at 10.30 am on the following day. While el Baghir was in Dakar, security officers visited his house on 12 September, telling his wife that he would be arrested upon his arrival back in Sudan.

SOAT informed IPI that, during the previous nine months, Faisal el Bagir has been arrested once and ordered to report to the security unit’s offices five times. In June 2001, security officers confiscated el Bagir’s property, including his computer, printer, motorbike and various documents. None of this property has yet been returned to him, despite the fact that he has filed an official complaint alleging that it is illegal since he has not been charged or tried for any offence.

Unfortunately, the harassment of Faisal el Bagir is merely part of a continuing wave of attacks on journalists and media in Sudan. At the beginning of September, Osman Mergani, a journalist for the daily Al Rai Al Aam, was arrested and the issues of three Sudanese newspapers (Khartoum Monitor, Al-Horriya and As Sahafa) were seized after they criticised the decision of the Sudanese government to withdraw from the peace talks with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). Furthermore, over the past month, the security forces have systematically harassed human rights defenders.

IPI considers threats and intimidation of journalists and human rights workers by state employees as a serious infringement of basic human rights. Furthermore, the detention of journalists for their reporting on sensitive topics and the suspension of numerous newspapers over recent months constitutes a blatant violation of the right to free information under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Sudan is a signatory.

Therefore, we call upon Your Excellency to ensure that these acts are halted immediately and unconditionally and to ensure that journalists and human rights workers in Sudan are allowed to carry out their profession without further harassment.

We thank you for your attention.

Johann P. Fritz
Director
CC: Mr Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin, Minister of Justice and Attorney General