SUDAN: SIX CHILDREN SENTENCED TO DIE OVER REBEL RAID

November 22, 2009: Sudan sentenced six children to death for taking part in a Darfur rebel attack on Khartoum but has since promised not to execute them, a top United Nations official said.
A Sudanese government official said he could not comment on the case but added child executions were not allowed under the law and there were checks to keep youngsters off death row.
"We have six from the attack on death row," said Radhika Coomaraswamy, the U.N. Secretary-General's special representative for children and armed conflict.
"The government claims that a military panel has found that these were not children. But the assessment of the international agencies is that they are children."
"I was assured today by the minister of justice that they will not be executed," she told reporters at the end of a trip to Sudan.
The United Nations defines a child as anyone under 18.
"According to that law, no child can be executed," foreign ministry spokesman Moawia Osman Khalid told Reuters. "If a court handed out such a sentence, it would be overturned on appeal." (Sources: Reuters, 22/11/2009)