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At least three journalists are expected to face trial this week for covering the ongoing protests in Sudan.
Sudan’s radio Dabanga reported that Mr Khalid Fathi, Mr Hamad Suleiman and Mr Tegi Osman would appear before the Khartoum East Court.
The three were arrested by the notorious agency, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), in the past weeks.
The same spy agency filed a complaint to the court against the journalists for defying President Omar Bashir’s emergency laws that banned media coverage of the ongoing unrest.
The editor-in-chief of the El Tayyar, Mr Osman Mirghani, was also seized and detained last Friday for publishing articles on the protests.
Radio Dabanga quoted the Sudanese Journalists’ Network (SJN) saying that the recent arrests and complaints were adding torment “to the variety of shameful practices and violations of the security apparatus against the Sudanese press”.
SJN vowed to continue exposing the security service’s plan, which it says works to terrorise and intimidate journalists and impede the freedom of the press.
Recently, press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) documented 79 media personnel arrested in Sudan since the commencing of the protests last year.
The watchdog says some of the journalists spent months in prisons and detention centres across the country.
Deadly protests have rocked Sudan since last December after cash-strapped Khartoum cut a vital subsidy on bread.
The protests quickly escalated into nationwide anti-government demonstrations, with protesters calling on President Bashir to step down.
Officials say 30 people have died in protests, but Human Rights Watch says at least 51 people have been killed.
President Bashir has remained defiant and declared a year-long state of emergency.
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