43 Protesters, Including Amal Habani, Arrested in Khartoum

Omar Al-Bashir, president of SudanBeyond the Veil| Bloomberg New is reporting 43, not 30 as BBC reports, people protesting against the Public Order Law have been arrested in Khartoum. The protest was triggered by the vicious whipping of a woman, caught on camera, and sent to journalists including Anne last week.

“We were expressing our anger peacefully,” said Amal Habani by phone from the police station in Khartoum. Amal Habani was arrested in July of 2009, for writing a column in support of Lubna Hussein, another case than Anne covered in detail, after being asked for help by people in North Africa region.

“They barred their lawyers and families from seeing them,” said Mariam al-Mahdi, spokeswoman of the Umma opposition party. The police continue to question 38 women and five men, she said.

Islamic Shariah law has governed Sudan’s justice system since 1983 when it was introduced by former president Gaafar al-Nimeiri. Amnesty International has called on Sudan to amend its penal code and abolish flogging as a penalty, calling it “cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”

See yesterday’s:

As World Condemns Sudan Flogging, Judiciary Opens Investigation

Primarily women are flogged in Sudan. Court records in 2008 showed that nearly 40,000 were flogged, according to the criminal justice records.

Entire Lubna Ahmed Hussein case: