The deputy head of Sudan’s opposition Umma Party was sentenced to a week in prison yesterday for demonstrating against the president, party officials said, as activists protested against emergency laws imposed last month.
Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi, the daughter of Umma leader Sadiq al-Mahdi, was among a group of 19 arrested while demonstrating in front of Umma’s headquarters in Omdurman, across the Nile from the center of the capital, Khartoum, Mohamed al-Mahdi Hassan, head of the party’s political bureau told Reuters.
The court also fined her 2,000 Sudanese pounds ($42) for participating in the protest, which was calling on President Omar al-Bashir to step down, he said. Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi was briefly arrested at the end of January in connection with the protests. Another of Sadiq al-Mahdi’s daughters, Rabah, was also arrested yesterday.
Agence Press however quoted an opposition group as saying that nine women were sentenced to a month’s imprisonment for taking part in anti-government protests.