Three weeks after his arrest in Dar...

Three weeks after his arrest in Darfur, a two-time Pulitzer Prize- winning foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune was charged in a Sudanese court Saturday with espionage.

Paul Salopek, 44 was onward a free-lance assignment for National Geographic magazine when he was arrested with his driver and an interpreter Aug. 6 through pro-government forces in the war-ravaged province.

All three men were charged with espionage, reporting official documents, reporting false information and entering Sudan without a visa, National Geographic said.

upon Aug. 14, Slovenian writer Tomo Kriznar was convicted in Darfur of espionage, publishing false reports and entering the geographical division without a visa. He was sentenc to pair years in prison.

Salopek was writing an article upon the sub-Saharan African region known as the Sahel, National Geographic said.

"He had no agenda other than to fairly and accurately report in succession the region," National Geographic Editor in Chief Chris John said.

Calling Salopek "one of the greatest in number accomplished and admired journalists of our time," Tribune Editor and Senior Vice President Ann Marie Lipinski also discarded the espionage charge.

CONGRESSMEN VISIT

"He is not a spy" she said. "Our impassioned hope is that the authorities in Sudan will recognize his innocence and quickly allow Paul to reply home to his wife, Linda."

one as well as the other publications have been in telephone contact with Salopek since learning of his arrest about a week ago and are working to certain his release, they said. The referee Saturday agreed to delay the trial until race 10.

Salopek told couple U.S. congressmen who visited him Tuesday that he was being held in a 20-by-20-foot-cell with 15 other inmates and no toilet. Salopek was later mov to better quarters, U Rep Christopher Shays (R-Conn) said.

U Sen Barack Obama, forward a tour of Africa, is monitoring the situation, a spokesman said.

As a foreign correspondent for the Tribune, Salopek has protected Africa, the Balkans, and Central Asia.

He won a Pulitzer in 1998 for his coverage of the Human Genome Diversity devise followed by a second in 2001 for his reporting forward the African continent.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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