Nine hanged men claimed innocence

April 14, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Nine people executed Monday by the Sudanese authorities had asserted their innocence before being hanged for the murder of a prominent Islamist journalist in 2006. Also, the Fur tribe protested the execution and considered it as directed against their ethnic group.

The editor of Al-Wifaq daily Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed was snatched from his home in a northern district of Khartoum by armed men and his decapitated body was found the following morning lying on the street in southern Khartoum on September 6, 2006.

Ahmed’s murder had been perceived at first as motivated by blasphemy for articles republished from the internet that questioned the parentage of Islam’s prophet Muhammad; also a group claiming to be al-Qaida’s branch in Sudan issued a claim of responsibility for the murder.

Sudanese authorities responded by indicting ten people belonging to the Fur tribe, one of the most affected by the Darfur conflict. Also, the Ministry of Justice kept secret for a time the details on those arrested for the killing or on their motive.

But later, they disclosed that according to the confessions obtained from the suspects, Mohamed Taha had been slaughtered because of articles questioning the morals of Darfuri women in reaction to reports about sexual violence against women in the war-ravaged Darfur region.

“The convicted told their families before being executed they were innocent and never killed the journalist,” one of the relatives of the convicted people told Sudan Tribune today from Khartoum on condition of anonymity. The relative added that they told that to their family just hours before the execution.

“They said they should be considered as martyrs for the cause of Darfur and asked their families to not weep for them,” the source added, before commenting “this is a political crime.” He stressed that the convicted were tortured to confess to the crime.

“And you should know that even under torture only three confessed and retracted before the judge,” he added.

Yesterday morning the penitentiary authorities of Koper Prison allowed the nine convicted to meet their families for two hours. Hundreds of Darfuris were gathered outside the prison, while Mohamed Taha’s family was allowed to witness the hanging.

“The execution of the nine men is outrageous. They were arbitrarily arrested, tortured and then subjected to an unfair trial,” said Tawanda Hondora, Africa Deputy Director at Amnesty International.

The hanging also angered Darfuri who demonstrated in Khartoum to protest the hanging of the nine men. On Tuesday some 5000 demonstrators burned shops and cars in south Khartoum. They also chanted slogans supporting the Sudan Liberation Movement, a rebel group led by the exiled Abdel Wahid Al-Nur.

Further, in a statement released from the Darfuri Osman Tarleen, one of Fur traditional leaders called to investigate the execution of the nine Fur saying it came in line with the crimes committed by the government in the region since 2003.

All these crimes will not “cow the will of our tribe — instead such intimidations increases our determination” to struggle for the rights of our people, the tribal leader said.

The nine men executed in Khartoum-North yesterday were: Ishag Al-Sanusi Juma, aged 75 years; Abdel Hai Omer Abdel Majeed, 45 years; Mustafa Adam Mohamed Mohamed Khalifa, 72 years; Abdel Majeed Ali, 33 years; Sabir Zakariya Hassan, 28 years; Gamal Eldin Eisa Al Haj, 45 years; Adam Ibrahim Alhaj, 44 years; Mohamed Birgid, 65 years; and Hassan Adam Fadol, 55 years.

The nine were buried in Sahafa East Cemetery.

(ST)