UN Official: Rapists should be on trial not journalists

05/08/2011 12:43

Representative of the UN secretary of physical violence in regions of conflicts Margareta Wahlström, condemned the verdicts of Sudanese journalists who wrote articles on the rape of the Darfuri Safiya Ishaq and stated that the rapists should be on trial instead of the journalists who wrote reports on the crimes committed. In a statement issued in New York, Margret said that the Sudanese journalists have the right to write a report on rape and other kinds of physical violence. 

Representative of the UN secretary of physical violence in regions of conflicts Margareta Wahlström, condemned the verdicts of Sudanese journalists who wrote articles on the rape of the Darfuri Safiya Ishaq and stated that the rapists should be on trial instead of the journalists who wrote reports on the crimes committed. In a statement issued in New York, Margret said that the Sudanese journalists have the right to write a report on rape and other kinds of physical violence. Verdicts have been issued during the previous two weeks on the editor-in-chief of the Aljareeda newspaper Saad Eldin Ibrahim and the two female journalists Amal Habani and Fatma Gazali of paying fines or facing jail for a period of one month. The verdict came in the case of the rape of the Darfuri female activist Safiya IShaq by three members of the security bureau last February and verdicts for the two male journalists Omar Elqaru and Faisal Mohammed Salih regarding the same case are being waited for.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-appointed Margareta Wahlström as Assistant Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction.