Sudanese child rapists sentenced to hang

Jan 21, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Two Sudanese men were given 100 lashes in public Sunday and sentenced to hang for raping and murdering a four-year-old girl.

The central Khartoum criminal court convicted Mutassim Khairallah, 35, and Imad Tabben, 18, of raping and then suffocating Muram Awad Sadiq last October before dumping her body down a well.

No date was set for the hanging, but the whipping was carried out on the spot. The two were dragged from the courthouse and publicly lashed in front of hundreds of cheering onlookers as drivers stopped their cars on the nearby main road to watch.

The grisly murder, which happened during the Eid al-Fitr feast ending the holy month of Ramadan, shocked Khartoum and the case was closely followed by the public.

After being whipped, the men were returned to prison to await a date for their execution.

There is no official record of the number of people executed each year in Sudan, but international human rights organisations frequently report cases in which the death penalty is handed down.

(AFP)