VZCZCXRO0565
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHKH #0524/01 1051440
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 151440Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3546
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000524 
 
DEPT FOR SE GRATION, S/USSES, AF A A/S CARTER, AF/C, AF/EX, DS, 
DS/IP/AF, CA, HR/ER 
NSC FOR MGAVIN AND CHUDSON 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC APER AMGT PGOV PREL AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: EXECUTION OF FORMER EMBASSY GUARD AND MEMBER OF THE FUR 
COMMUNITY ADAM IBRAHIM ELHAJ 
 
REF: A) BERNSTEIN-GILPIN E-MAIL, 03/01/07 
B) 08 KHARTOUM 1709 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On April 13, 2009, former Embassy guard Adam 
Ibrahim El-Haj was executed by hanging for conspiracy to commit 
murder along with eight other members of Khartoum's Fur community. 
The accused were charged with the September 6 2006 beheading of 
prominent Sudanese journalist Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed.  The 
Government of Sudan (GoS) deployed additional security forces around 
Khartoum on April 13 and 14 in response to reports of possible 
demonstrations and retaliatory actions by members of the Fur 
community, who responded with anger following the executions. 
Embassy Khartoum received several unconfirmed reports of civil 
unrest in the Al Sahafa neighborhood of south Khartoum where El-Haj 
and the others executed were buried during the early morning of 
April 14.  Sudanese National Police (SNP) contacts informed RSO 
Locally Engaged Staff (LES) that Fur leaders intended to demonstrate 
against the Sudanese Government's actions in front of the U.S. 
Embassy on April 14, but that the SNP refused to allow them to do 
so.  By close of business on April 14 the al-Sahafa neighborhood was 
reportedly calm but tense.  El-Haj had been placed on 
leave-without-pay (LWOP) status following his arrest in 2006 (ref). 
The Post's Human Resource Office is coordinating the payment of 
death benefits to El-Haj's widow.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On the evening of October 19, 2006, Adam Ibrahim El-Haj, a 
senior guard at the US Embassy in Khartoum, was arrested at his home 
by Sudanese police who initially rounded up more than 18 members of 
the Fur community during an extensive raid in the al-Sahafa 
neighborhood of south Khartoum.  On October 20, 2006, Sudanese 
authorities returned to El-Haj's home, located in southern Khartoum, 
and arrested several of his family members, including two children. 
Approximately 60 other individuals were arrested in connection with 
this case, but they were subsequently released for unspecified 
reasons.  The GoS eventually released all but 10 individuals. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The trial of the ten men accused of Ahmed's murder 
commenced in the fall of 2007 and was attended by the RSO Foreign 
Service National Investigator (FSNI).  Sudanese authorities charged 
el-Haj with being complicit in the beheading of journalist Mohamed 
Taha Mohamed Ahmed, an employee of the Arabic-language newspaper, Al 
Wifaq.  Ahmed was reportedly murdered on September 6, 2006 after he 
was kidnapped and allegedly brought before a private tribunal of Fur 
leaders, which according to the charges, ordered his execution.  His 
body was later found decapitated in a ditch along a roadway in the 
Al-Sahafa district of south Khartoum.  The murder shocked the 
country, drawing parallels to Al Qaeda killings in Iraq. The editor 
had faced criminal charges in May 2005 after republishing an article 
on the origins of the Prophet Mohamed, and a court had ordered Al 
Wafaq to suspend publication for three months. The editor had also 
angered many Darfuris after publishing articles criticizing the 
morals of Darfuri women.  Following the editor's murder, a Khartoum 
court barred newspapers from reporting on the criminal 
investigation; this ban continued throughout the trial as well.  Ten 
defendants were indicted on felony murder charges in November 2007. 
Reporting at the time indicated the accused were tortured and their 
confessions made under duress.  One of the ten, a minor reported to 
be 17 years old, was later acquitted due to his age and is now 
serving a four year prison sentence.  On April 2, 2009, the Sudanese 
Supreme Court found the conviction for the other nine defendants to 
be constitutional and upheld the death sentence. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) On 14 April the nine men, all members of the Fur tribe, 
were put to death at the Kober prison in northern Khartoum shortly 
after 1:00 p.m.  Embassy Khartoum received reports that protestors 
rioted and threw stones at vehicles in the Al-Sahafa neighborhood of 
south Khartoum following the executions and caused other, 
substantial material damage.  No casualties have been reported thus 
far. Several media outlets reported that demonstrators also set 
shops and vehicles on fire at a local market in response to the 
executions.  There were reports of the police using tear gas to 
disperse the protesters, who allegedly rioted and threw stones at 
vehicles on their way to the funeral of the executed men. 
Approximately 5,000 people attended the burials. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Sudanese National Police (SNP) contacts informed an RSO 
FSNI that Fur leaders had intended to demonstrate against the 
Sudanese Government's actions in front of the U.S. Embassy on April 
14, but that the SNP refused and riot police established barriers to 
confine them to the al-Sahafa neighborhood.  As of April 15, the 
neighborhood is reportedly calm but tense with a large number of 
uniformed and plain-clothed police and security officers deployed in 
the area.  Prominent Fur leader from East Jebel Marra Abdalla 
 
KHARTOUM 00000524  002 OF 002 
 
 
Khalil, who recently met with the President's Special Envoy to Sudan 
General Scott Gration in Jebel Marra, called Embassy political LES 
to express concern about the execution of the nine Fur accused of 
beheading Ahmed.  Khalil claimed that the arrests and subsequent 
executions were "engineered" by the National Congress Party (NCP) in 
order to punish the Fur, while allowing the "real perpetrators" to 
walk free.  Khalil said that he is reaching out to various human 
rights groups in order to convey his movement's stance on the 
executions. 
 
¶6. (SBU) El-Haj had been placed on leave-without-pay (LWOP) status 
since his arrest in 2006 in accordance with L/M/DS' recommendation 
(ref).  Post's FSN Committee collected contributions for El-Haj's 
family, and the RSO sent a condolence letter to the family.  Post's 
HRO has also coordinated the payment of death benefits. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment: Regardless of the guilt or innocence of the 
defendants, the vast majority of the Fur community in Sudan believes 
that the men were wrongly accused, and that the case against them 
was a sham.  Certainly the case raises serious questions about due 
process, as post reported previously in reftel.  The executions have 
had a chilling effect on the Darfuri community in Khartoum (and the 
rest of Sudan,) but we do not expect any violence or unrest due to 
the repressive police control exercised by the regime.  UN SRSG Qazi 
told us on April 15 that the UNMIS human rights section also 
continues to question whether due process was followed in this case 
and intends to raise this issue with the government.  End comment. 
 
FERNANDEZ