Tunisian journalist expelled from Sudan

Zuhair Latif, a Tunisian journalist with the Arabic Web site of news channel France 24, was detained for two days before being expelled from Sudan on March 1, 2009, the channel reported the following day.

In an interview with France 24, Latif said that on February 27, Sudanese intelligence agents stormed his apartment in Khartoum and confiscated his camera, tapes, and cell phones and then took him into detention.

The site said Sudanese authorities had claimed that Latif was expelled because he had “violated immigration procedures,” without specifying the violations. Latif told the channel that before his expulsion he had visited the Darfur region in western Sudan and had taken pictures and interviewed victims about the armed conflict there.

He also worked for the pan-Arab London-based newspaper Al-Hayat and other news organizations as well as for the World Food Program, France 24’s Arabic site reported.

On March 2, Latif left Khartoum for London.