Actor George Clooney was arrested today outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.
Clooney has been in town this week to hobnob at Wednesday’s State Dinner for visiting British Prime Minister David Cameron and to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The Associated Press reported that Clooney’s father, Nick, was also arrested, along with Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and NAACP President Ben Jealous after being warned three times to not cross a police line outside the embassy.
They were handcuffed and placed into a U.S. Secret Service van, the AP reported.
Clooney has been trying to raise alarms about Sudan President Omar al-Bashir blocking humanitarian aid from reaching southern Sudan.
He is a board member of the activism group Not On Our Watch, which also met with Obama this week. The group released a video of Clooney’s trip to the Nuba Mountains, where a humanitarian crisis is brewing.
“Few people in the isolated Nuba Mountains were aware of the public significance of the visitor who simply called himself ‘George,'” reads the web text posted with the video. “But we’re betting that back in Washington and among the action-oriented American public, people will.”
Foreign Relations Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) called Clooney “a tremendous example of the best citizen activism.”
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