KHARTOUM (Reuters)
Sudanese authorities on Monday executed nine men found guilty in the 2006 murder of a prominent Sudanese newspaper editor, journalist and owner of the Arabic-language newspaper al-Wifaq; Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, state media and a police source said.
The case has been sensitive for the government, which initially banned reporting of the trial other than by state media. The nine men were members of the Fur tribe from the troubled region of Darfur.
The state news agency SUNA later confirmed the hangings took place at Kober prison in Khartoum and listed the accuseds’ names. A Reuters reporter outside the prison saw groups of relatives waiting and some women wailing.
The decapitated body of the murdered editor was found on a dirt road in Khartoum in September of 2006. His hands and legs were tied and his head lay next to his body. In November 2007 the nine Sudanese men were found guilty of this violent execution.
During the trial the lead police investigator, Abdul Rahim Ahmed Abdul Rahim, said the defendants' motives were "political, ethnic and financial". Abdul Rahim said the defendants had been infuriated by an article in Ahmed's paper.
Earlier this month local media said a constitutional court had upheld the death sentences, putting an end to the appeal process.
