Editor’s note: Journalist Abu Zar Ali al-Amin was released on August 22, 2011, after 15 months in prison.
The Sudanese National Intelligence and Security Services arrested several journalists and human rights activists during a raid on the shared Khartoum offices of Radio Dabanga and the Human Rights and Advocacy Network for Democracy, according to local and international news reports.
Abdelrahman, the station’s Sudan director, and reporters al-Nur and Eshag remained in custody in late year, according to local journalists. Although the station is outlawed in Sudan because of its coverage of Darfur and human rights, it is based in the Netherlands and uses shortwave frequencies to transmit its signal into Sudan.
The three journalists were being held on antistate charges stemming from their reporting on the humanitarian situation in Darfur, the station reported. The journalists were also accused of threatening national peace and security, espionage against the state, and undermining the constitutional system, Dabanga said on its website.
The defendants, all of whom were being held at Khartoum’s Kober Prison, went on trial in July 2011, at which time they denied all charges against them. Their trial was pending in late year.