10 in Sudan sentenced to death
2007-11-11 22:47
Khartoum - A Sudanese court has sentenced 10 people to death after convicting them of assassinating the editor of a local newspaper last year - a ruling the defence attorney called "weak and hasty".
Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, editor of the pro-Islamist Al-Wifaq newspaper, was kidnapped from his home in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in September 2006 and beheaded, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The ten people sentenced by the Khartoum Bahari Wasat Criminal Court were mostly from Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur. The court had originally detained nine others, but released them for lack of evidence.
Defence attorney Kamal Omar said: "This ruling is weak and hasty and has not weighed evidence in a just way.
Muslims of different sects upset
"It relied on confessions extracted under torture, mistreatment and use of violence and has failed to take into account the statements made by the accused before this very court."
Ahmed was a controversial figure in Sudan's Muslim community, having angered Islamists in 2005 when his newspaper republished an article from the internet that questioned the lineage of the Prophet Mohammad.
The article upset Muslims of different sects, and some gathered in protest demanding Ahmed's execution. The editor eventually apologised in a letter to the press, saying he did not intend to insult the prophet.
Many at the time of Ahmed's murder saw similarities with al-Qaeda-type killings in Iraq, suspecting radical Islamic militants were involved in the crime.
Ahmed had also criticised armed groups in Sudan's Darfur region and questioned the stories of rape and sexual violence against women there.
- SAPA