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Sudan court convicts 5 for murder of USAID workers

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A Sudanese court on Wednesday convicted five men of the January 2008 murder of two US Agency for International Development (USAID) employees, sentencing four to death. Mohamed Makkawi Ibrahim Mohamed and Abdel Basit al-Hajj Hassan were found guilty of firing shots that killed USAID workers John Granville and Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama while they were returning from a New Year's Eve party. Mohamed Osman Yusuf Mohamed and Abdel Raouf Abu Zaid Mohamed were found guilty of driving and being a passenger in the gunmen's vehicle, respectively. A fifth defendant was found guilty of illegally dealing in weapons and sentenced to two years in prison. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton welcomed the convictions as an "important step in bringing justice for" Granville and Rahama. The US Embassy in Khartoum issued a Warden Security Message on Tuesday warning U.S citizens to avoid downtown Khartoum in light of possible anti-American and anti-Western demonstrations following the rulings. The trial for the five Sudanese men began in August in Khartoum. Following the shooting, a previously-unknown extremist group calling itself Ansar al-Tawhid claimed responsibility for the shootings. Granville was the first US diplomat killed in Sudan since the deaths of US Ambassador Cleo Noel and US Embassy staffer George Curtis Moore in 1973. Tense diplomatic ties between the US and Sudan have been strained by the on-going conflict in the country's western Darfur region.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).