George Clooney and Father Released After Arrests at Sudanese Embassy

George Clooney and his father were released from jail Friday after being arrested earlier in the day as they protested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The actor, who most recently starred in "The Descendants," described the incident as "my first arrest and let's hope it's my last." He told reporters following his release that he had paid a fine but did not specify the amount.

Clooney was arrested as he protested Sudan's blockade of food and aid. His father, Nick Clooney, Martin Luther King III, four Democratic members of the House of Representatives and NAACP President Ben Jealous were also among those arrested Friday.

"We had fun," the actor joked after his release. "We were all in a cell together. It was nice."
But he was deadly serious when he discussed the situation in Sudan, saying, "We are trying to bring attention to an ongoing emergency."
"Our job right now is to bring attention to it," he said. "One of those ways was apparently getting arrested. We hope that people understand that there really is a ticking clock on this and we really need to get moving."

Clooney and the other protesters assembled Friday morning outside the Sudanese Embassy, where they were warned three times not to cross a police line outside the building on Washington's Embassy Row.

When they refused to obey, they were placed in plastic handcuffs and put in the back of a US Secret Service van.
A Secret Service spokesman told FOX News Channel they were taken to the Metropolitan Police Second District for processing on charges of disorderly crossing of a police line.

Clooney, a longtime activist for human rights in Sudan, said before his arrest that he wanted to draw attention to the need for humanitarian aid there.
"We need humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world -- immediately," Clooney said to cheering supporters, according to AFP.
"The second thing we are here to ask is a very simple thing -- it's for the government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children," Clooney said.

"Stop raping them, and stop starving them. That's all we ask."
The Enough Project, which organized the gathering, released a statement saying Clooney and the others were arrested for protesting "the escalating humanitarian emergency in Sudan that threatens the lives of 500,000 people."

Clooney's arrest came a day after he met with President Barack Obama at the White House about the ongoing crisis in Sudan