UN Human Rights Commissioner Condemned Executions in Sudan!

by Nur el-Deen
(Denmark)

The Untied Nations human rights office condemned strongly the execution of six Sudanese on Thursday, despite requests to determine whether fair trials standards were respected.

The Secretary General's Special Representative in Sudan sent urgent message just hours before the execution to the government requesting that no execution take place.

The six Sudanese were accused of murdering 13 police officers during clashes over a forced eviction in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum in 2001 and they were sentenced to death in November 2006. The Supreme Court of Sudan granted a stay of execution in early December 2009, but it expired on 6 January.

Rupert Colville in the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) condemned the executions and reiterated that under international law, the application of the death penalty can only take place in a very strictly defined set of circumstances.

He noted that after the conviction and sentencing, the attention of the government was drawn to various reports the six persons had been detained without access to legal counsel for five months following their arrest and they confessed to murder under torture.

Mr. Colville said referring to the appeal of the Secretary General's Special Representative in Sudan, "Regrettably, this appeal was ignored", and added that the latest executions highlight the growing number of executions that have taken place in Sudan in recent times. Many of these executions were carried out after trails, which failed to conform to international standards.

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