Sudanese Soldier Sentenced To Death For Killing A Demonstrator

A Sudanese court sentenced to death a paramilitary officer charged with killing a demonstrator during a deadly breakup of a protest camp in the capital, Khartoum, in 2019.

The officer, Youssef Mohieldin al-Fiky, a major with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, rammed a protester with his car as security forces were dispersing a sit-in outside the military headquarters in June 2019.

Al-Fiky rammed his car into 22-year-old Abdel-Shakour, in Omdurman, a city adjacent to Khartoum.

The report said the trial had started more than a year later, in July 2020, in Khartoum’s Judicial and Legal Science Institute. Judges held 26 hearings before their ruling on Monday.

The verdict can be appealed before a higher court.

According to videos distributed on social media, dozens of people outside the courthouse cheered the court ruling. Abdel-Shakour’s family were also seen hugging each other and praying.

The protester, Hanafy Abdel-Shakour, was one of over 120 people killed during the brutal crackdown on demonstrators in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan that June.

This was two months after the military ousted then-President Omar al-Bashir amid a public uprising against his nearly three-decade autocratic rule.