சூடானில் கொல செய்தவர்கள் அல்லாஹூ அக்பர் என்று கத்தினார்கள்

சூடானில் கொல செய்தவர்கள் அல்லாஹூ அக்பர் என்று கத்தினார்கள்

Five on trial in Sudan over U.S. diplomat killing

KHARTOUM (AFP) -- Five Islamists, wearing shackles and religious dress, went on trial in Khartoum on Sunday over the killing of a U.S. diplomat and his driver on charges that would see them hanged if found guilty.

The court sat for about 30 minutes amid a heavy presence of riot police and a highly charged atmosphere that saw the defendants spit at two Western female journalists while their supporters shouted ""Down Down USA"" and ""Allah Akhbar.""

John Granville, 33, who worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and his 40-year-old Sudanese driver Abdel Rahman Abbas were shot dead in their car before dawn on New Year's Day.

His murder sent shockwaves through the sizeable Western community in Khartoum, a city usually considered one of the safest in Africa.

Before a packed courtroom, prosecutor Mohamed al-Mustafa described the defendants as religious fundamentalists and accused them of murder and weapons possession, saying they plotted to attack people celebrating the New Year.

Mustafa charged that the men held a meeting in Atbara, in northern Sudan, then rented a house in the capital's twin city of Omdurman and bought weapons in preparation for their attack.

On the evening of December 31, they drove around looking for victims until they found Granville and his driver, he said. They shot them with a pistol and escaped in a second getaway vehicle to Atbara, he charged.

Wearing traditional white gowns and religious caps, the bearded suspects chatted among themselves in the dock while the prosecutor was speaking.

The defense lawyer asked the judge for the trial to take place in a larger courtroom so that relatives of the accused and journalists, some of whom were not able to find seats in the packed chamber, could attend.

Defense lawyer Adel Abdul Gani told AFP the court would meet again on September 11, when the investigator in the case would present his report.

He said the judge would only ask the defendants to enter a plea once the prosecutor has made his case.

U.S. Embassy personnel and an American lawyer, who addressed the judge through a translator, were also in the courtroom. As they left, men in the corridor outside shouted ""we are against you"" and ""down, down USA"".

Among the suspects is a son of the head of Ansar al-Sunna, a pacifist Muslim sect in Sudan that has no political affiliation but has links to the orthodox Wahhabi sect dominant in Saudi Arabia.

As they walked through the court compound, one suspect spat in the face of a Western woman reporter. As they headed up the stairs, in their shackles, they sprayed spit down on to the heads of the woman and another colleague.

According to the United Nations, up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict between the Arab regime and ethnic rebels erupted in 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.