(Photo by Laurence Underhill / DNE)
Sudanese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Aly Sadek said the issue of the detained Egyptian fishermen, who were taken in Port Sudan Tuesday accused of crossing the territorial water of Sudan, will soon be resolved.
Sadek told state-run news agency MENA on Saturday: “Those incidents occur frequently, yet it does not harm our ties with Egypt.”
Sudanese authorities interrogated 32 fishermen from the Egyptian boat “Hadi El-Rahman” Tuesday night, amid ongoing investigations of 108 fishermen accused of illegally entering and working inside Sudanese regional waters.
Three Egyptian fishing boats from the Matariya area in the governorate of Daqahleya were detained by Sudanese authorities in the past week. Of these, 46 fishermen on board the first boat, named “Princess Mariam”, were sentenced to a month in prison and a fine of EGP 5,000 each.
Egyptian Ambassador in Sudan Osama Shaltout said: “The Sudanese judiciary will review the case of the detained fishermen within two weeks, especially after the appeal presented to the court on the initial verdict against of 46 of them.”
“Investigations are still ongoing for the other arrested fishermen,” he added.
Six children and a senior were transferred back to Egypt via the Sudanese embassy in Port Sudan, according to Shaltout.
In response to the arrest, the Egyptian embassy in Sudan called on the Egyptian fishermen once again to abide by the marine regulations and the permissions required to fish inside territorial water.
