SUDAN. DEATH PENALTY UPHELD FOR KILLERS OF EDITOR

March 10, 2008: the Court of Appeal in Sudan upheld the death sentence against ten people convicted of abducting and killing the journalist Muhammad Taha Muhammad Ahmad. Al-Sahafah learned that the court of appeal upheld the death sentence issued by the central Bahri criminal court in November, 2007, against ten out of 19 suspects who were convicted by the attorney general of complicity in abducting, killing and mutilating the body of the journalist Muhammad Taha Muhammad Ahmad.
The head of the council, Kamal Umar Abd-al-Salam, told Al-Sahafah that the court of appeal's decision was as weak as that of the criminal court because it lacked the principles for a just trial and had ignored the defence argument that confessions were made under duress. (Sources: BBC, 11/03/2008)