The Sudan Sues Amnesty International for “Defamation”

The Sudanese government has proven endlessly creative at resisting genuine progress toward peace, but I don’t think this strategy is going to do it much good:

The Sudanese government has begun filing a defamation lawsuit against Amnesty International for a report on torture against political prisoners in the country, the justice minister said Wednesday.

The London-based rights group said in statement last week that eight men arrested for allegedly plotting a coup were being held in a Khartoum prison “where they have been tortured and need immediate medical attention.”

Sudanese security personnel hammered the prisoners’ nails, crushed their testicles and beat them on the head with metal rods, Amnesty said.

“We are filing a lawsuit against them (Amnesty) for defamation,” Sudan’s Justice Minister Mohamed Ali al-Mardi told The Associated Press by telephone.

He did not specify with which court the government was filing the suit nor comment on Sudanese media reports that the government had asked Interpol to arrest Amnesty’s director.

[snip]

The eight men who were reportedly tortured are opposition politicians and retired army officers, part of a group of some 40 people arrested in July. The government accuses them of having conspired a “sabotage” to topple the regime with foreign help.

Officials have produced no proof of the allegations, and the detainees have not been charged, leaving most outside observers skeptical.

Amnesty said the men were tortured either to confess their role in the alleged coup or to incriminate higher ranking opposition figures.

The government has ordered a local media blackout on these arrests, calling it a matter of national security. Editors for the handful of Sudanese newspapers that had published Amnesty’s statement said they were being summoned for questioning.

The most appropriate venue for a defamation lawsuit would, of course, be Sudan’s own court system. Truth is a defense to very little there.