Sudan lifts ban on independent newspaper

KHARTOUM, Feb 5 (Reuters) Sudanese authorities lifted a ban on an independent Arabic daily imposed after it violated a decree not to report on the case of a murdered journalist, its editor said today.

The al-Sudani paper, which has become one of the leading dailies in Sudan, has had many problems with the authorities.

''Yesterday we resumed,'' said editor-in-chief Mahjoub Erwa.

He told Reuters the newspaper had agreed not to write about the case of Mohamed Taha, a journalist beheaded last year, ''until the court case begins.'' Sudanese authorities have banned media from reporting on the case of Taha, a controversial Islamist who had reprinted an article questioning the roots of the Prophet Mohammad.

They say they don't want the investigation to be jeopardised. But the investigation has finished and other papers have reported on the number of accused and other details.

Taha, the editor of the private al-Wifaq daily, was kidnapped from his home by armed men last year and his decapitated body found the following day in a street in a south Khartoum suburb.

Erwa's paper was closed down in Sudan under emergency law in 1994. It reopened last year and quickly became a popular independent daily.

Sudan's constitution enshrines press freedom, but sporadic censorship occurs.

REUTERS DKA RN1633