SUDAN: SPECIAL COURT IN DARFUR SENTENCES TEN INDIVIDUALS, INCLUDING FOUR CHILDREN, TO DEATH

October 21, 2010: Judge Shegifa Ali Eshag of the Special Court in Nyala sentenced ten people, including four alleged children, allegedly affiliated with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), to death for a carjacking in Khour Baskawit, South Darfur, on May 13, 2010. The defendants were prosecuted for a number of criminal offences under the 1991 Criminal Act, including murder, offences against the state, armed robbery and criminal damages. The detainees were denied access to their lawyers and their families before the trial except for one occasion when their lawyers were permitted to meet with them for half an hour. The four alleged children were placed in the same detention facilities as adults and were all tried together with the adult defendants before the Special Court. Despite the fact that the four reportedly gave their exact age to the court's registry, only two were allegedly sent for medical inspections, despite requests by the lawyers and claims by the other two that they were also under 18. In Sudan, many people do not have birth certificates, so courts sometimes rely on medical examinations to establish people's ages when they are not provided by the defendants. Idriss Adam Abbaker and Abdallah Abdallah Daoud, were reportedly both found to be under 18 by the first medical examination. A second examination confirmed only Idriss Adam Abbaker as a child, so only he had his sentence commuted. The court did not look for further medical expertise to verify the results and reasons behind the contradictory results and also did not allow Ibrahim Shareef Youssif and Abdelrazig Daoud Abdessed to undergo the same examination. The adults sentenced to death are Altayib Mohammed Yagoub, Abdelgasim Abdallah Abubaker, Hassan Ishag Abdallah, Adam Altoum Adam, Mohammed Adam Hasballah and Alsadig Abbakar Yahya. (Sources: www.africafiles.org, 02/11/2010)