A Sudanese judge has handed down verdicts for five men
charged with crimes related to the murder of two USAID workers in Khartoum. The
decision: guilty. The penalty: death for four of the men, and a lesser sentence
for a minor player.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the verdicts “an
important step in bringing justice” for the two men, John Granville, 33, and
Abdel Rahman Abbas, 40, who were shot and killed as they made their way home
from New Year’s celebrations at the start of 2008. She hailed them as
representing “the highest ideals” of USAID.
Alonzo Fulgham, acting administrator at USAID echoed these
sentiments, and praised Granville and Rahama for their “service to others
and a compassion for those in need.”
The reaction from the Granville family was a tad more
subdued. In
a statement released to the media, the family, residents of Buffalo, NY,
said that “Although the guilty sentence brings us relief, not even justice can
bring him back to us.” The family added that, because of his status as an
American in the Sudan riding in a car with diplomatic plates, they felt that
his murder was an assassination.
According to USAID, Granville’s work in Sudan focused on
improving governance and democracy in the country. He helped distribute solar
power radios in the south of Sudan in a bid to prepare the region, torn by two
decades of civil war, for elections.
Rahama, a Sudanese national, began working for USAID in
2004. He was heavily involved in aid missions to Darfur, including the very
first one, carried out by the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team.
Four of the five men found guilty of the murders were
sentenced to death by hanging. The fifth admitted to supplying the killers with
the weapon, and was sentenced to serve two years in prison. The Granville
family revealed that, in accordance with Sudanese law and customs, the
murderers’ families offered “blood money” —cash payments to the victims’
families—in order to receive lighter sentencing. Both the Granville and Abbas
families refused the payment.
The verdict came as somewhat of
a surprise. Sudan has been considered a state sponsor of terror by the U.S.
government since 1997, was bombed by the U.S. under the Clinton Administration
in 1998, and, just this year, Sudanese President Bashir was indicted by the
International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur.
Despite the rejection of the ICC
by the U.S, one might expect the Sudanese government to take an antagonistic
attitude toward any sort of American interests in the country, given the recent
history of animosity between the two countries.
News of the guilty verdict caused the U.S. embassy to issue
a warning to Americans in the Sudan. Citizens were advised
to “avoid the Khartoum North courthouse, located in downtown Khartoum, maintain
a low profile, and increase vigilance.”
The murderers had
links to a Wahhabist group, and claimed that the USAID workers were killed
because of their attempts to spread Christianity in the Sudan.
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