Sudanese court commutes sentence of US diplomat killer

April 10, 2012 (KHARTOUM) – The supreme court in Sudan ruled on Tuesday to commute a sentence issued against one of four prison escapees who were convicted of killing a US diplomat three years ago.

The court minimized the fine of 10,000 Sudanese pounds (2,000 USD) that the Khartoum North Criminal Court had ordered the defendant Abdel-Rauf Abu Zaid Hamza to pay or face a one-year prison term in case of non-payment to 5,000 Sudanese pounds.

Abdel-Rauf happens to be the son of the leader of the fundamentalist Islamist Ansar Al-Suna Group Abu Zaid Mohamed Hamzah. He received his sentence against the background of his escape from Kober Federal Prison with three other inmates, all convicted of killing US diplomat John M. Granville.

The four escapees broke out of Sudan’s oldest prison in January 2010 while on death row for the killing of the diplomat who was shot dead in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on 1 January 2008.

(ST)