[opiniojuris] Kevin Jon Heller: The Sudan Sues Amnesty International for "Defamation"

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Posted by Kevin Jon Heller:
The Sudan Sues Amnesty International for "Defamation"
http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1190810435.shtml


   The Sudanese government has proven endlessly creative at resisting
   genuine progress toward peace, but I don't think [1]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.

References

   1. http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/09-19-2007/2689000fd0876734.html