SUDAN: TWO SUDANESE GET DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLING 4 CHINESE

September 7, 2010: A Sudanese court sentenced two men to death for killing four kidnapped Chinese oil workers and a Sudanese soldier during a botched rescue attempt by security services, their lawyer said.
Armed Arab tribesmen took nine Chinese oil workers hostage in South Kordofan in 2008 demanding a share of crude revenues from the region and jobs for their people.
Defence lawyer Abu Bakr said four of the hostages and the soldier were killed and three wounded in crossfire during the rescue raid by Sudanese troops, but that the Khartoum court found two of the tribesman guilty of murder in the deaths.
Abu Bakr said the two defendants were also convicted of kidnapping, damage of property and criminal conspiracy. They had denied having any part in the abduction.
"(The judge) imposed the maximum penalty according to the law which was the death penalty for the murder charge," he said.
Abu Bakr noted that the families of the victims could still pardon the defendants and take blood money instead at a hearing in the same court scheduled for Oct. 20.
Abu Bakr said he would be approaching the Chinese ambassador to Sudan and the families of the victims to support payments to the families of the two tribesmen so that they would not be put to death by hanging.
The two men, Idriss Bahr Ali Hamadein and Ahmed Adam Hassan, are both from the Arab nomadic Missiriya tribe in Kordofan. (Sources: Reuters, 07/09/2010)