20101224
reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudanese authorities beat and tear gassed opposition party members on their way to Friday prayers in the latest crackdown ahead of a January 9 referendum likely to split Africa's largest state, party officials said.

Since a brief easing of restrictions during elections last April, Sudan has cracked down on the press and rights activists, and refuses permission for any protest opposing government policies.

Analysts say the government is feeling vulnerable ahead of the referendum, which is expected result in south Sudan seceding against the wishes of Khartoum.

"There was an Umma Party meeting in the party headquarters and when members left to go to the mosque for prayers, police beat them with batons and tear gassed them," senior Umma Party official Sara Nuqdullah told Reuters, adding three people were injured.

Opposition parties do not require permission to meet in their own party headquarters. Nuqdullah said the meeting was to discuss the referendum.

Umma Party leader Sadiq al-Mahdi was Sudan'e last democratically elected prime minister. His daughter Mariam, the party spokeswoman, was in hospital on Friday after being beaten on her head and arm, Nuqdullah and a witness said.

The police spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

Rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday that a Sudanese court had sentenced high profile rights activist Mudawi Ibrahim to one year in jail for embezzlement despite an earlier acquittal which found no fraud within his aid agency, SUDO, one of many shut down last year.

The case was appealed by the governmental Humanitarian Aid Commission, Amnesty said, and on December 22 despite no further evidence Ibrahim was found guilty.