LONDON: Amnesty International accused the Sudanese authorities on Wednesday of torturing a British journalist and his translator who were seized in war-torn Darfur while investigating suspected chemical attacks by government forces.

Phil Cox, working for Channel 4 TV and his Darfuri translator Daoud Hari, were abducted in December when they were commissioned by the channel to probe reports by Amnesty that Sudanese security forces had used chemical weapons against civilians in the mountainous Jebel Marra district.

Cox was released in February, but on Wednesday Amnesty International said he and Hari had been tortured while they were in custody.

“For nearly two months, the two journalists were locked up in a prison and tortured, simply for doing their job,” Amnesty’s Muthoni Wanyeki said in a statement.

“They were beaten, subjected to electric shocks, deliberately deprived of oxygen and subjected to mock executions.”

The two men were also chained to a tree in North Darfur when they were detained there, Amnesty said, adding the two were later moved to Khartoum’s Kober prison.

The journalists’ ordeal indicates that the Sudanese authorities have something to hide in Darfur, Amnesty said.

“If no chemical weapons were used, then why not let the journalists get on with their jobs?,” Wanyeki said.

“This is one more reason, if any were needed, why the alleged chemical attacks which killed an estimated 200 to 250 people, must be thoroughly and independently investigated.”

Amnesty said in a September report it had credible evidence of Sudanese government forces repeatedly using chemical weapons in Jebel Marra between January and August 2016.—AFP