Alleged killers of US diplomat in Sudan to stand trial
August 6, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese authorities decided to press charges against two individuals in connection with the killing of a US diplomat in Sudan last January.
Last June the lawyer for the suspects Adil Abdel-Ghani requested that they be subject to medical examination saying it was necessary for arguing the merits of the case. However it was not clear if the request was granted.
Later Abdel-Ghani filed a challenge to the case saying there was no basis for the accusations.
John Granville, a 33-year-old officer with the U.S. Agency for International Development, was killed by gunmen while returning home from New Year celebrations in Khartoum on January 1. His driver, Abdel-Rahman Abbas Rahama, 39, was also killed.
Last February Sudanese authorities arrested two suspects after an exchange of fire that led to some injuries before they were taken into custody but their names were not released.
The New York Times quoted an unidentified law enforcement official as saying that one of two men arrested is a Sudanese army officer. He said that the latter was the ringleader of a small cell of terrorists, and was not acting on behalf of the Sudanese government.
Al-Tahir said that there are a total of five suspects in the case and stressed that “they are all Sudanese”.
“There are no terrorist ties to the incident. The group that carried out the attack is small and isolated with extremist views” he said.
The cell is believed to have been formed last year after Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, vehemently rejected the idea of a United Nations peacekeeping mission to Darfur.
The investigations into the killing took longer than what was expected by observers and Sudanese officials avoided commenting on the progress of the case.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) sent a team to assist their Sudanese counterparts.
In late April the Sudanese interior ministry issued a statement saying the case would be sent to the justice ministry within two weeks.
The US presidential contender Barack Obama issued a statement in April saying that “Khartoum has yet to fully account for the murder of John Granville”.
Granville is the first U.S. diplomat to be killed in Sudan since the 1973 assassination of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, slain along with senior embassy officer George Curtis Moore by the Palestinian Black September militant group
(ST)