Sudan executes five men from Nile state
February 26, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese justice today executed five men from Nile state in Khartoum rejecting demands to convert the death penalty sentences to prison sentences.
The executed men, from the village of al-Bouga, were convicted by the Berber criminal court for the murder of 30-year-old farmer Hassan Mohamed Hassan in 2004.
The deputy chief justice, Judge Mohamed Ahmed Abu-Sin rejected demands from undisclosed foreign countries to renounce to death penalty considering that the waiver of the application of the death penalty waiver of the obligation to the Islamic “Shariah” legislation.
Defence lawyers had exhausted all routes of appeal, including taking the case to Sudan’s Constitutional Court.
Relatives had also failed in an effort to get the sentence delayed while they sought to reconcile with the family of Hassan Mohamed Hassan, who had rejected the option of accepting blood money instead of the death sentence.
The Sudan Organisation Against Torture, which opposes the death penalty, has condemned its use by the Sudanese government.
The executed men are: Yaser Sayed (27 years old, single, farmer), Esmaiel al-Hage (27, married, farmer), Ayoub Ahmed al-Misbah (30, single, farmer), Mohamed Abdalla Mustafa (25, single, farmer) and Adil Bilal Daf al-Seed (25, single, farmer).
(ST)