Darfur court sentences 3 men to amputation for cooking oil theft
April 5, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – A Darfur criminal court has sentenced three men found guilty of stealing cooking oil to the amputation of their right hand from the wrist, in a hearing advocacy groups say failed to meet even the most basic fair trial standards.
Judge Abazar Hamid of the El Fasher Criminal Court in North Darfur made the ruling on 31 March after the group was found guilty of capital theft. None of the men were provided with a defence lawyer during the trial.
Abdulatif Ahmed Ibrahim, Ahmed Idris Salih, and Ali Salih are accused of stealing cooking oil worth 14,700 Sudanese pounds (SDG), or about US$3,300 from a factory in El Fasher on 26 December 2012.
The families of the men, currently detained in North Darfur’s Shala prison, have retained a lawyer to appeal the decision.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) said the judge’s sentence was in contravention of Sudanese law, which requires the accused in amputation cases to be represented by a defence lawyer.
It called on the Sudanese government to put an end to amputations and other forms of corporal punishments, urging it to bring Sudanese laws in line with its commitments under international law.
“Amputation penalties contravene the absolute prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishments under international law, and underscore the urgent need to reform Sudanese law in line with Sudan’s international human rights commitments”, ACJPS said in a statement on Friday.
Amputation as a form of corporal punishment was incorporated into Sudanese law in 1983 when then-president Gaafar Nimeiry introduced Islamic reforms known as the “September laws.”
Although amputation sentences have previously been handed down under these laws, there had been no reported cases since 2001, and human rights campaigners had until recently hoped that a de facto moratorium on such sentences remained in place.
However, in a press conference on 11 March, Sudan’s deputy chief justice, Abdul Rahman Sharfi, boasted that 16 cases of amputation had been carried out by authorities since 2001.
The latest sentence follows the case of 30-year old Adam al-Muthna, who had his right hand and left foot amputated on 14 February after being found guilty of theft, sparking international and domestic outcry.
The al-Sudani daily newspaper reported that Muthna was convicted of firing on a car with an assault rifle between North Kordofan and East Darfur in March 2006 and stealing SDG 1,000 ($228) from its passengers.
The Sudanese Penal Code provides cross amputation as a penalty for armed robbery when it results in grievous injury or involves theft of property with a value exceeding SDG 1,500 or about $340.
Doctors at a state-owned hospital in Khartoum reportedly carried out the court-ordered sentence.
Human rights campaign groups accused the doctors involved of acting in contravention of medical ethics which prohibit them from engaging in acts of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Sharfi reportedly responded by saying that Sudanese authorities “cherish the book of Allah [the Quran] and not the Hippocratic Oath”.
He warned that doctors refusing to carry out Shari’a (Islamic law) punishments would face prosecution, saying the government could train and qualify judges to perform court-ordered amputations instead.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Sudan routinely practiced other forms of corporal punishment, including stoning and flogging, usually carried out for drinking alcohol or adultery offences.
ACJPS says that as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Sudan made a commitment to an absolute ban on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
In 1997, Sudan failed to comply with a request from the UN Human Rights Committee to abolish flogging, amputation, and stoning because they are incompatible with Sudan’s obligations under the ICCPR.
(ST)