Hollywood star George Clooney arrested? Yes, it’s true! Actor and civil rights activist George Clooney was arrested outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington during a political protest against the government’s treatment of its people on Friday. George Clooney’s father, 78-year-old Nick Clooney, was arrested along with his son on misdemeanor charges of crossing a police line.
George Clooney, arrested and put in handcuffs with dozens of other protestors, spoke earlier in the day about the abhorrent conditions in Sudan. Speaking before a large crowd gathered at the Sudanese embassy in Washington, Clooney said “we need immediate humanitarian aid into Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”
The actor, who testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday about his own experiences in Sudan, said the protestors also wanted “the [Sudanese] government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them, and stop starving them.”
At present, nearly a half million people residing in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile regions of Sudan are at risk of starvation due to government blockades of supplies. The regions are fast approaching the beginning of the country’s rainy season, which Clooney said will only make the situation more dire.
“It’s about to start raining, and once it starts raining there, thousands of people are going to die,” Clooney said. “This is a moment where we have a chance to do something because if we don’t, in the next three to four months, there’s going to be a real humanitarian disaster,” Clooney continued.
Because the Sudanese embassy in Washington is private property, protestors were aware they faced arrest for gathering there and refusing to leave. Police reportedly warned the protestors three times before beginning to arrest them and haul them away.
A number of Sudanese citizens and civil rights leaders were arrested at the protest, including Martin Luther King III, Rep Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), NAACP President Ben Jealous and Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).
