Date set for Sudanese student’s murder verdict

The Criminal Court of Khartoum North has said that it will deliver its verdict in the case of Asim Omar, a student at Khartoum University who is facing capital charges for allegedly killing a policeman, on Tuesday August 29.

The verdict has already been delayed several times as the court awaited the testimony of a policeman.

At the session on Monday, the policeman who had been summoned by the judge was questioned about the identification parade conducted for the accused a week after his arrest in May last year.

In a statement after the session, the Sudanese Congress Party of which the accused is a member described the testimony of the police officer during questioning at yesterday's session as confusing.

It said that the identification parade was not conducted correctly and violated all known procedural rules.

The judge set a deadline for the filing of amended pleadings for August 23 and set the date for the verdict for the afternoon of Tuesday August 29.

Before the start of the hearing on Monday, Asim Omar surprised the audience by reciting verses from a poem, and delivering a eulogy speech about the late Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, the first woman parliamentarian elected in Sudan, who died in London on Saturday morning. Omar asked the audience to stand in mourning for her soul.

Dr Mudawi

On Wednesday the Khartoum Criminal Court will resume hearings on the case of human rights defender Dr Mudawi Ibrahim and others.

Yesterday the representative of the defence of Dr Mudawi, lawyer Nabil Adib, told Radio Dabanga that the defence faced a problem after the court rejected the request to separate the trial of the accused in the case of Tasneem El Zaki for her presence in Cairo.

He said that the court ordered El Zaki to be summonsed by a judicial order. The Judiciary responded that the procedure must be made within a time limit of three months.

Adib therefore expected the trial to be adjourned to a later date.

He confirmed that the defence will ask the court to reduce the time limit from three months to one month and the announcement of the publication of the observance of the defendants’ long time in prison.