KHARTOUM: The defense team of four Sudanese journalists on trial for alleged terrorism and false reports on arms production for Iran quit on Wednesday over "impossible" court conditions.
"The judicial authorities are making it impossible for us to defend our clients, so we are pulling out of the case," the head of the defense team, Kamal Al-Juzuli, told AFP.
Abu Zar Ali Al-Amin, Ashraf Abdelaziz, Ramadan Mahjub and Tahir Abu Jawhara of Rai Al-Shaab newspaper have been on trial at the North Khartoum criminal court since June 9 on charges of spying and terrorism.
They are specifically accused of having published "false" reports on an alleged factory in Sudan that makes weapons for Iran. They also wrote articles suggesting that President Omar Al-Beshir, who was re-elected in April polls, did not enjoy widespread support in Sudan.
The four might face the death penalty if found guilty.
"No one should hang for writing his opinions," lawyer Fateh Mohammed el-Hajj told a news conference during which the defense team announced it was quitting.
Juzuli told that the court refused to hear three out of four defense witnesses. "They destroyed their case," he said.
"We were left with two options: either we go ahead, and this would have helped the court prove that this trial was fair; or we pull out," Juzuli said.
"Out of fairness for our clients we decided to pull out and the people will soon realize that there is something wrong in this case," he added.
The lawyers said that families of the defendants approved their decision.
The journalists have four days to find a new defense team.
In mid-May authorities shut down Rai Al-Shaab (The Opinion of the People), the newspaper of Islamist opposition leader Hassan Al-Turabi — once Beshir’s mentor but now one of his fiercest critics — who was also arrested and jailed.
The information ministry issued a statement at the time saying that the action came after the paper published "erroneous" material.
"It published on its front page information claiming a serious conflict existed between Egypt and Sudan," and that engineers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were in the country for a joint project.
Turabi denounced the April elections — during which Beshir was declared winner with 68 percent of the vote — as fraudulent.
