Two wire-service stories (updated Sunday to add the one from AFP):
From Reuters...
Sudanese security forces jailed without charge a journalist accused of slandering President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in a move some parliamentarians called unconstitutional.
Zuheir Sirraj, a columnist for the al-Sahafa daily paper, was detained on Friday night.
A source in state security said he had violated the law by writing an article saying the president did not care about the country's problems and citizens. But no charges had yet been brought against him.
"This is a clear human rights violation and it is regrettable that it is coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the independence of Sudan," said Yasir Arman, a member of parliament for the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the movement's former spokesman.
Arman and other SPLM officials were to hold a news conference on Saturday to demand Sirraj's immediate release.
"It is a violation of the new constitution," he told Reuters. Sudan celebrates 50 years of independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule on Jan. 1, 2006.
Sudan's government signed a peace deal in January 2004 with the SPLM ending more than two decades of civil war in the south. Under the deal a coalition government was formed and a new constitution passed.
Newspapers are often closed or suspended in Sudan, although the authorities deny censorship.
A source in state security said Sirraj had violated the law. "He was arrested yesterday because he wrote an article about the president of the republic... and he used unsuitable words," the source said.
But Arman said Sirraj was jailed for expressing his opinion and demanded his immediate release.
He added the state security forces had no constitutional powers to arrest citizens and the matter should be dealt with by the correct legal channels.
From AFP, reprinted on Sudan.Net...
The Sudanese authorities have arrested a journalist for insulting President Omar al-Beshir after he accused the head of state of being deaf to the concerns of the population, officials said Saturday.
Zuhair al-Sarraj [note alternate spelling], who works for the al-Sahafa daily, had said in his column that many people addressed complaints to Beshir "but it seems as though the one you are appealing to is not alive."
Sarraj's wife, Huda Hamid Salih, told AFP that on Friday evening her husband was telephoned by the security officials who ordered him to report to the security offices in Khartoum immediately.
"When he told them he was out of town, they commanded him to come even if he was outside the Sudan and should take a plane for the purpose," Huda said.
Fellow journalists and officials from the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) condemned the arrest.
"We strongly condemn the arrest of Dr Zahair al-Sarraj and we want this resounding and sharp condemnation to reach every concerned official," Yassir Arman, chairman of the National Assembly's information committee told a news conference.
Sarraj's wife said this was the second time her husband was arrested in the last two years, in addition to several summons to the security offices for questioning.
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