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January 15, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The deputy chairman of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP), Nafie Ali Nafie, has claimed he has nothing to do with the detention of a student activist who heckled him during a public symposium.
- NCP’s official Nafie Ali Nafie (SMC)
The student activist, Mohamed Hassan Alim Boshi, was arrested at gun point on Monday, 26 December, by an unknown group at his house in one of Khartoum’s eastern suburbs. He has since remained incommunicado.
His arrest occurred a few days after he generated huge publicity for himself by criticising Nafie during a symposium held at the University of Khartoum. In widely-circulated video footage of his speech during the symposium, Boshi described the government official as the “worst human being on earth” and warned that a popular uprising against the NCP rule in Sudan is imminent.
But Nafie, who also serves as an assistant to president Al-Bashir, denied that the student activist was arrested because criticism against him.
In a statement issued by his office on Sunday, the NCP figure said that what Boshi had said in the debate was not serious enough to warrant his arrest.
The statement also denied that Nafie had instigated any legal proceedings against Boshi.
Nafie said that Boshi’s arrest was necessitated by security reasons and had nothing to do with his critical interposition during the Khartoum University debate.
“I am positive that the apparatus that arrested him did not do so because of the symposium but for other reasons,” Nafie said, adding that the arrested student and the opposition Bath Party, to which he belongs, know why he was arrested.
The presidential assistant described as “cheap propaganda” what he said were attempts by opposition parties to undermine him on account of the issue.
Nafie further alleged he only knew about Boshi’s arrest from the papers. He went on to call on security authorities to release him.
The case of Boshi has attracted support from many local and international organisations which have called for his immediate release.
(ST)
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