URGENT APPEAL for ten individuals including four alleged children sentenced to death by hanging following an unfair trial

Idriss Adam Abbaker - alleged child

Abdallah Abdallah Daoud – alleged child

Ibrahim Shareef Youssif – alleged child

Abdelrazig Daoud Abdessed – alleged child

Altayib Mohammed Yagoub

Abdelgasim Abdallah Abubaker

Adam Altoum Adam

Mohammed Adam Hasballah

Alsadig Abbakar Yahya

On October 21, the Special Court in Darfur, western Sudan, sentenced ten individuals including four alleged children to death by hanging following an unfair trial. One of the children has had his sentence commuted after a medical examination established him to be under 18 years old.

The ten were sentenced to death for their reported involvement in an attack on a government escorted convoy in South Darfur in May 2010. A total of eleven individuals allegedly affiliated with the Darfurian armed opposition group, the Justice and Equality Movement, were tried in relation to the attack. One of the eleven was acquitted.

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 trial was flawed and violated the right of the accused to a fair trial. 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 only confirmed 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. This raises concerns about the arbitrariness of the process of determining the age of the defendants by the court. 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. The defence lawyers submitted an appeal on behalf of the defendants before the Chief Justice for South.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

- Stating that international human rights law and standards and the Sudanese 2010 Child Act prohibit the execution of children;

- Calling on the authorities to commute the death sentences of the nine people sentenced to death;

- Urging the authorities to ensure that the appeal is in accordance with international fair trial standards;

- Urging the authorities to transfer the suspected juvenile offenders to a juveniles detention facility, or release them pending their re-trial, and to re-try them before a juvenile court;

- Stating your opposition to the death penalty as a violation of the right to life and the ultimate cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment, and calling for all death sentences to be commuted and a moratorium established.

APPEALS TO:

President

HE Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir

Office of the President

People’s Palace PO Box 281

Khartoum,

REPUBLIC OF SUDAN

Fax: 011 249 183 774 339

Salutation: Your Excellency

Minister of Justice

Mr Abdel Bassit Sabdarat

Ministry of Justice, PO Box 302

Al Nil Avenue

Khartoum,

REPUBLIC OF SUDAN

Fax: 011 249 183 764 168

Email: moj@moj.gov.sd

Salutation: Your Excellency

COPIES TO:

Minister of Interior

Mr Ibrahim Mohamed Hamed

Ministry of Interior

PO Box 873

Khartoum,

REPUBLIC OF SUDAN

Fax: 011 299 183 777 6554

Email: ministry@mfa.gov.sd

H.E. Ambassador Khidir Haroun Ahmed

Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan

2210 Massachusetts Ave. NW

Washington DC 20008

Tel: 202 338 8565

Fax: 1 202 667 2406

E-mail: info@sudanembassy.org

kahmed@sudanembassy.org

PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.