Beaten Sudan editor out of hospital

Khartoum (AFP) - With his arm in a sling and a deep gash on the bridge of his nose, a Sudanese newspaper editor has left hospital five days after an unusual physical attack.

Several men stormed the offices of the Al-Tayar daily on Saturday evening, seized reporters' equipment and severed computer connections before turning on chief editor Osman Mirghani.

"I can recognise them," because only one attacker had covered his face during the beating, Mirghani said at his home on Thursday.

It was a rare assault on a journalist in Sudan, although reporters regularly complain of censorship by the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS).

Al-Tayar, which has reported on alleged government corruption and other controversial topics, was banned by NISS from publishing for nearly two years until March.

Mirghani, who also has injuries around his right eye, did not directly accuse anybody of the assault, but said it was not the work of a "terrorist organisation" or Islamic extremists.

It occurred just a few days after he called on local television for Islamist Sudan to normalise relations with Israel, whose 17-day war with Hamas Islamists in the Gaza strip has killed more than 770 Palestinians.

Israeli officials have long accused Sudan of serving as a base of support for Hamas.

British ambassador Peter Tibber has said he hopes there will be "a proper investigation" into the Al-Tayar incident.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged authorities to identify those responsible and to prosecute them.

"The Sudanese government must show in actions, not just words, that it has no tolerance for assaults on the press," Sherif Mansour, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa programme coordinator, said in a statement on Tuesday.