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| Africa Horn |
| Sudanese on trial for US murder dismiss defense |
| 2009-10-12 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Four Sudanese who face the death penalty for killing a U.S. diplomat dismissed their defense team on Sunday, denounced the trial as political and labeled the United States murderers of Muslims. The court sentenced the men to death in June for shooting dead 33-year-old John Granville, who worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and his driver in their car in Khartoum on January 1 last year. Granville, from Buffalo, New York, was the first U.S. official to be killed in Khartoum for more than 30 years and the New Year's Day murders shocked the expatriate community there. Procedural problems meant the death sentence is being reconsidered. At a Sunday hearing the convicted men waived their right to a defense. "This case is a political trial and we release our defense team," Abdel Basit al-Hajj Hassan said, speaking on behalf of all four. Another, Mohaned Osman, called Granville a "kafir", or disbeliever, and said: "The Americans killed Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and even in Darfur." Mother's demand Under Sudanese law, the families of murder victims can choose blood money or the death penalty for retribution. Granville's mother demanded the death penalty for his killers, according to a letter read out in court on Sunday. Under Islamic law, the court at the time of issuing the death sentence asked Abbas' family whether it wanted the men executed, or chose to forgive them or receive compensation to spare their lives. The family opted for execution, but his father has since said he forgave the men. Granville's mother Jane Granville at the time wrote the court a letter also demanding their execution, but it was rejected because it had not been properly notarized. In the letter read out in Arabic by a prosecutor on Sunday, Granville wrote: "I say, with a torn heart, there is no option before me: a death sentence is the only sentence that safeguards the lives of others from those who killed my beloved son." The court will ask Abbas's widow on Monday if she wants the death sentences carried out. The court can decide to carry out the execution even if the family opts for compensation or to forgive the men. |
| Posted by:Fred |