Thaindian News

Nairobi/Khartoum, April 14 (DPA) Nine men from the restive Sudanese province of Darfur have been hanged for the beheading of a prominent newspaper editor, media reports said Tuesday.
Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, editor of al-Wifaq newspaper, was kidnapped from his home in 2006. His decapitated body was found in the streets of Khartoum a day later.

Sudan found ten members of the Fur tribe, one of the tribes in Darfur that has been fighting the Arab government, guilty of the crime. One was later acquitted.

The Sudan Tribune said the nine men were hanged in a Khartoum prison Monday, in front of Mohamed Taha’s relatives.

The authorities said that articles he wrote in his newspaper questioning the scale of rape against women in Darfur and criticising rebel groups angered the nine men.

Amnesty International condemned the conviction of the executed men, saying their confessions were extracted under torture.

Mohamed Taha had also angered Islamists by reprinting an article questioning the roots of the Prophet Mohammed.

The conflict in Darfur began in 2003 when mainly non-Arab tribesmen took up arms against what they called decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

The UN says up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced by the conflict. The Sudanese government claims around 10,000 have died.