Sudan Frees Government Critic Mohamed Hassan Alim Who Appeared on YouTube
Mohamed Hassan Alim, a Sudanese activist who gained notoriety for a confrontation with a top presidential adviser that was posted on YouTube, was released today after spending 24 days in jail.
Alim said he was taken from his home by plainclothes armed men on Dec. 26, blindfolded and held in Kober prison in Khartoum, the capital. He was picked up after the YouTube video appeared of his confrontation with presidential adviser Nafie Ali Nafie at an Islamic student meeting where he accused the government of corruption, nepotism and human-rights violations. Nafie denied he had anything to do with Alim’s detention, the state-run Sudan Media Centre reported yesterday.
“No one would tell you what’s happening or what’s next,” he said of his detention in a telephone interview today. “I didn’t know if I was going to be killed, held in prison forever, or if was going to see my family again.”
Alim, a 29-year-old engineering student, became known on Twitter as Sudan’s Mohamed Bouazizi, a street trader who helped spark the Arab Spring with his self-immolation in December 2010. A FreeAlim campaign appeared on Twitter, while London-based Amnesty International issued an “urgent action” statement on Jan. 3, saying he faced “a serious risk of torture.”
The national security service said Alim was arrested for “inciting students to take to the streets and attack police forces” during a protest last month at Khartoum University in support of people displaced by the Merowe Dam, north of Khartoum, the Sudan Media Centre said, citing the head of the National Intelligence and Security Service’s information office.
Held Incommunicado
Alim has been detained several times by national security since he became politically active in 2005. He was released without charge on March 13 after being held incommunicado for 45 days, Amnesty International said.
At least 73 students were arrested last month during a sit- in at Khartoum University to protest police violence and demand the overthrow of the government.
“Since the Arab Spring, the authorities have been focusing their attention on the students and young people because they know they are now the most powerful,” Wagdy Salheh, a member of a committee of 30 lawyers defending Alim, said in an interview.
To contact the reporter on this story: Salma El Wardany in Khartoum at selwardany@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net
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