Usamah Mohamad (born c. 1980
[) is a Sudanese web developer, blogger, and ]citizen journalist
Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, a ...
from Omdurman
Omdurman (standard ar, أم درمان ''Umm Durmān'') is a city in Sudan. It is the most populated city in the country, and thus also in the State of Khartoum. Omdurman lies on the west bank of the River Nile, opposite and northwest of the ...
arrested during the protests of June 2012.[ A graduate of the University of Khartoum,][ he writes on Twitter under the name "simsimt".
On 22 June 2012, he and a friend used smartphones to document the heavy police presence in the neighborhood of Burri in Khartoum before a planned protest. They were then arrested by plainclothes officers. Though the friend was released seven hours later, Mohamad continued to be detained, and his relatives were informed that he was being held at Kober Prison.]Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...
explaining why he participated in the protests. In it, he stated his belief that "after twenty-three years of oppression and injustice, poverty, crimes that are all committed in the current regime, change now is inevitable."Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
designated Mohamad a prisoner of conscience, "held solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression". The organization also stated its concern that Mohamad was at risk of torture.[ Al Jazeera reported that Sudanese Twitter users were calling for his release under the hashtag #FreeUsamah.]
Accessed Oct. 25, 2021.
References
External links
*
Living people
Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by Sudan
Sudanese journalists
Sudanese prisoners and detainees
University of Khartoum alumni
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
{{Sudan-journalist-stub