{"id":42132,"date":"2019-12-30T15:22:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T15:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42132"},"modified":"2019-12-30T15:22:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-30T15:22:37","slug":"sudan-sentences-27-to-death-for-torturing-killing-protester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42132","title":{"rendered":"Sudan sentences 27 to death for torturing, killing protester"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A Sudanese court on Monday sentenced 29 intelligence agents to death for killing a teacher in detention during protests against Omar al-Bashir<\/a>,\u00a0Sudan’s longtime former leader,<\/span>\u00a0earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The defendants were found guilty of deadly abuse against Ahmed al-Kheir at an intelligence services facility and sentenced to be hanged, judge Sadok Abdelrahman said.<\/p>\n

The teacher was beaten and tortured to death after he was arrested in late January by intelligence operatives in Sudan<\/a>‘s eastern province of Kassala, the judge said.<\/p>\n

Another four officers were sentenced to three years in prison and seven were acquitted in the landmark ruling, which paves the way for democratic transition in the North African nation.<\/span><\/p>\n

More:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Al-Kheir’s family said security officials initially claimed he had died of poisoning, though days later a state investigation found he had died of injuries from beating.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hundreds rallied outside the Omdurman\u00a0<\/span>court where the verdict was delivered. Some waved national flags and others held pictures of al-Kheir, and cheered after the decision was announced.<\/p>\n

The case marks the first time courts have handed down convictions over crackdowns on demonstrations in the months before and after al-Bashir was toppled in April.<\/p>\n

The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group of unions that led the protests, welcomed the verdict.<\/p>\n

The group vowed to continue pursuing and bringing to justice security officials accused of torture.<\/p>\n

Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman, a member of the Sudan Sovereign Council<\/a>, said the verdict “renews the Sudanese people’s trust in their judicial institutions”.<\/p>\n

Rallying point in protest movement<\/h2>\n

Al-Kheir was detained on January 31 and was reported dead two days later. His body was taken to a local hospital where his family said it was covered in bruises. At the time, police denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

His death became a rallying point during 16 weeks of protests against al-Bashir’s rule.<\/p>\n

Sudanese took to the streets from December 2018, initially to protest against high bread prices, but the demonstrations soon called for al-Bashir to step down.<\/p>\n

The president was deposed in April by the military, but huge protests continued, culminating in a compromise that saw a joint military-civilian transitional council formed in August.<\/p>\n

At least 177 people were killed during the months-long protests, according to rights group Amnesty International, while a doctors’ committee close to the protest movement put the toll at over 250.<\/p>\n

Many of those killed were the victims of a June 3 massacre outside army headquarters in Khartoum, perpetrated by men in military fatigues.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sudanese court on Monday sentenced 29 intelligence agents to death for killing a teacher in detention during protests against Omar al-Bashir,\u00a0Sudan’s longtime former leader,\u00a0earlier this year. The defendants were found guilty of deadly abuse against Ahmed al-Kheir at an intelligence services facility and sentenced to be hanged, judge Sadok Abdelrahman said. The teacher was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":42133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}