Sudan's
oil-producing south voted this month in a referendum on secession from the
north, promised under a 2005 peace accord which ended decades of civil war. It
now looks set to become independent on July 9.
Many in
the north blame the split on Khartoum's failure to share power and wealth with
marginalized areas.
The
western Darfur region is in the throes of an eight-year insurgency and the east
has the country's deepest levels of poverty despite hosting its only port and
largest gold mines.
"The
accused were practicing their rights to express their opinion freely as
guaranteed under the constitution and the many charters of human rights which
Sudan has signed," Mutasim Al-Amir, one of the defense lawyers, told
Reuters on Thursday as the journalists made their first court appearance in
Khartoum.
The
hearing was postponed as some witnesses were still in the eastern city of Port
Sudan, where the accused were first arrested before being transferred to the
capital.
Both
journalists work for a weekly paper published in the east called Sout Al-Bar'out.
Khartoum
has brought eight charges against them, the most prominent being trying to
overthrow the constitutional government, an offense punishable by death.
On Jan.
9, the first day of voting in the south's referendum, the paper published an
article saying the marginalization of the east could give rise to calls for
secession there.
The
editor in chief of the paper, Abu Eisha Kazim, and the author of the article,
Abdel Gadir Bakash, were arrested the following day, they said.
