20120814
AFP
A Sudanese judge on Monday threw out most of the charges laid against a US resident arrested over Arab Spring-style protests, ordering him to be freed after paying a fine.

Judge Abaas Al-Khalifa sentenced Rudwan Daud to the several weeks he has already spent in jail but dismissed a terrorism-linked conspiracy and other charges.

Daud could have been jailed for between five and 10 years if convicted on the most serious charge of involvement with a terrorist or criminal organisation.

Judge Khalifa said there was no evidence to support that or four other charges.

He convicted Daud of creating a disturbance.

"Because when police arrested him they found him putting gasoline on old tyres preparing them to be burned," the judge said.

On June 16 at the University of Khartoum, students started protesting high food prices, beginning the longest-running public challenge to the 23-year regime of President Omar al-Bashir.

After Bashir announced austerity measures, including tax hikes and an end to cheap fuel, scattered demonstrations calling for the government's downfall spread around the capital and to other parts of Sudan.

Burning tyres was a tactic of some protesters, but the movement has faded during the holy month of Ramadan.

"The court is satisfied with the length of time he has spent in jail," the judge said, ordering Daud to be released after paying a fine of 500 Sudanese pounds (about $100).

Daud smiled at the verdict while about 100 of his supporters inside the courtroom applauded and said, "Justice lives."

One of his lawyers, Moutasem Al-Hassan, had asked the judge to consider that Daud's wife is pregnant, and that further jail time could affect the application which he has made for an American passport.

Another accused, Ahmed Ali, faced the same charges as Daud but was acquitted of them all on Monday.

Ten other people, including Daud's father and brother, were freed earlier for lack of evidence.

Daud is an activist with Girifna ("We are fed up"), a non-violent youth movement which, like its counterparts in Syria and elsewhere, has used Twitter and other social media to spread its anti-government message and support street protests.

Girifna said on its website that Daud was arrested at his house on July 3 after helping to organise a protest in his Khartoum-area neighbourhood.

Scores of peaceful protesters were arrested in the demonstrations which were repeatedly dispersed with excessive force, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a joint statement in July.

Many detainees were released after hours or days, but others were held for longer and "several have reported harsh treatment, including beatings and sleep-deprivation," the watchdogs said.

A senior official in the ruling National Congress Party described the protests as ridiculously small, linked to opposition political parties and amounting to nothing like the Arab Spring revolts that began in December 2010 against authoritarian rulers in North Africa and the Middle East.