January 14, 2015 (KHARTOUM) - The secretary general of the Sudanese Journalists Union Tuesday has been sued for a handshake with the Israeli ambassador to Eritrea.
Salah Omer Alshaikh, who is also the director of a Sudanese company, SodaExpo, greeted the Israeli ambassador last week during an exhibition for Sudanese products in Asmara.
The matter became very quickly an issue when a member of the journalists secretariat Abdelmajed Abdelhamid asked Alshaikh to explain why he had shaken hand with the Israeli diplomat.
Alshaikh said he ignored that that diplomat is the Israeli ambassador when he visited their stand. Also, the head of the journalist's union, Sadiq Rizaik, minimised the incident and supported his secretary general.
However Abdelhamid, on Tuesday lodged a complaint against Alshaikh insisting on the responsibility of the secretary-general. He said the latter didn't separate between the union and his other activity.
It is not clear on which legal basis he submitted his claim.
Sudan has no diplomatic relations with Israel and remains hostile to the Jewish state on the grounds that it is occupying Palestine and Arab territories.
In a report released in September 2014, Human Rights Watch said that Sudanese asylum seekers who return to Sudan from Israel “were held for long periods - one was tortured, one put in solitary confinement, and a third charged with treason”.
(ST)