Sudan finance minister orders arrest of journalist over graft inquiry
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May 18, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan finance minister Ali Mahmud has been
embroiled in controversy after he reportedly ordered the arrest of a
local journalist who questioned him on evidence showing that he had
authorized an overly large salary to one of his subordinates.
JPEG - 5.4 kb
Sudan finance minister Ali Mahmud (Miraya FM website)
The subtly pro-government daily newspaper Al-Sudani reported on
Wednesday that its investigative reporter Abu Al-Gasim Ibrahim was
placed under arrest for five hours at the behest of the finance
minister, Ali Mahmud, whose personal guards later turned the
journalist over to the National Intelligence and Security Services
(NISS) until he was eventually released without charges.
According to the paper, the story began when Ibrahim met the minister
and questioned him on the authenticity of a job contract signed by the
minister and showing that the general manager of the Khartoum Stock
Exchange is earning a monthly salary exceeding by two times the
announced salary of the country’s President Omar Al-Bashir’s.
Al-Sudani recounted that the minister reacted angrily to the
journalist question and ordered his security guards to arrest him
immediately.
The Network of Sudanese Journalists (NSJ), a local press-freedom
watchdog group, strongly denounced Al-Sudani’s journalist arrest,
saying it is a dangerous precedent which violates the rights of
journalists in doing their work to protect the country’s resources
from being squandered.
NSJ called on the presidency of the republic to investigate the
journalist’s arrest, citing articles guaranteeing press freedoms in
Sudan’s interim constitution of 2005.
(ST)
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