The Khartoum government’s crackdown on free expression continues. Abdelgadir Mohammed Abdelgadir reports
Rachid Nini, the editor of one of Morocco’s leading newspapers, has been sentenced to a year in prison and fined 100 euros after he was convicted of compromising “the security and integrity of the nation and citizens”. Nini had been held for over two months before the trial took place and had been refused bail three times. A number of his editorials had attempted to expose the corrupt practices of the Morrocan government.
Index on Censorship award nomineee Natalia Radzina of Belarus’s Charter 97 has revealed that the KGB tried to recruit her as an informant. She alleges that KGB officers psychologically tortured her whilst she was held at the KGB detention centre in Minsk. She has claimed that she was threatened with “five to eight years” in prison if she did not comply, and told that she would “have no children”.
Journalist Ahmet Topcu has been sentenced to 11 months in jail for denouncing a proposal put forward by the Mayor of Rize, in north east Turkey. The mayor, Halil Bakirci, is currently a member of the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP). Topcu had published an article criticising the mayor’s suggestion that “Kurds should have co-wives” and that this would answer the “Kurdish question”. Bakirci was widely condemned at the time and has offered a public apology.