Sudanese court acquits college student accused of killing policeman

January 22, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – A court in Khartoum on Tuesday has acquitted, Asim Omer Khalifa, a university student accused of killing a policeman more than two years ago, said the opposition Sudanese Congress Party (SCoP)

Asim, 23-year-old and member of the SCoP was accused of killing an anti-riot policeman who died after a hit by a Molotov cocktail during the student protests in April 2016.

In September 2017, Khartoum North Criminal Court found Asim guilty of premeditated murder of a police officer and sentenced him to death by hanging.

The Khartoum Court of Appeals in December 2017 issued a ruling supporting the conviction of Asim.

But, Sudan’s Supreme Court in August 2018 revoked the death sentence against Asim and ordered to return the case to the trial court for further hearings.

In a press release extended to Sudan Tribune, SCoP information secretary Mohamed Arabi said Asim has received the acquittal ruling following three years of detention and “physical and psychological torture”.

However, in a later statement Arabi said Asim hasn’t been yet released due to the existence of other charges under article 139 of the Criminal Code pertaining to “serious harm”.

“These charges have been filed by some officers from the police operations department in April 2016 accusing Asim of throwing Molotov cocktail at them causing them serious harm,” he said

He voiced his conviction that these charges would be dropped particularly after the court decision to acquit Asim of throwing the Molotov cocktail.

“The release [of Asim] is now a matter of formality and the defence lawyers have begun the completion of the procedures and he is expected to be released within a few hours” he added

(ST)