Austrian spy held in Sudan expects to be expelled

Source: AFP, 08-01-2008
KHARTOUM: A 20-year-old Austrian man detained in Port Sudan on charges of spying for possessing articles about an eastern Sudanese former rebel group said he expects to be expelled from the country. Thomas Hirschvogel said on his blog on Saturday that following his arrest on December 31 as he traveled into the hills around the Red Sea port without a travel permit that, "They told me that I'll most likely be expelled from Sudan." Sudanese media had reported that Hirschvogel was being held in his hotel room in Port Sudan but the Austrian Embassy in Cairo, which has responsibility for Sudan, said he was free to move around town with a government minder. "He hasn't been arrested and will most likely be expelled," an embassy spokesman told AFP. Hirschvogel said on his blog that, "They believe that I'm either a journalist or a spy" after printouts of Internet articles about the Beja Congress, which fought a 10-year rebellion against Khartoum before signing a peace deal in October 2006, were found in his bags. The Beja Congress, named after eastern Sudan's largest ethnic group, formed the Eastern Front rebel grouping along with the Free Lions of the Rashidiya Arabs.