Farah demonstrations in retribution ... the death sentence for 27 of the killers of the teacher Ahmed Al-Khair in Sudan

Ahmed Fadl-Khartoum

"We know pardon and forgiveness, but the family wants retribution and nothing else because the crime was ugly and treacherous," said Saad, the brother of the "martyr" teacher Ahmed al-Khair, hours before the court that sentenced him to death from the security service.

On the eve of his going to court, Saad was reassured that the judiciary would bring justice based on the course of the case in which the trial proceedings began since August 21.

He told Al-Jazeera Net that the witnesses and the sessions were all in favor of the indictment committee, which was composed of 82 lawyers headed by Omar Abdel-Atti.

On Monday morning, the judge of the Omdurman Court, Al-Sadiq Abdul Rahman, sentenced to death by hanging to death against 27 employees of the General Intelligence Service for convicting them of intentional killing according to Article 130 of the Criminal Code.

The ruling - which took about two and a half hours to read - condemned three others to three years in prison, while seven were acquitted. The judge ordered the release of others, according to the time spent in custody.

This ruling is rare because it executed a large number of employees of the security apparatus, which had extensive powers during the era of President Omar al-Bashir.

Demonstrations and processions
The streets surrounding the Omdurman court were flooded with protesters since early morning, amid chants calling for retribution from the 41 accused, all of whom belong to the security service. After the verdict was issued, the chants of the demonstrators, who exchanged congratulations and hugs, rose sharply, hoping that this ruling would mark the beginning of retribution for the killers of the revolutionaries.

The court held amid tight security measures to close the streets surrounding the Omdurman Courts Complex, whose officials suspended all sessions of the two for security reasons, except for the case of Teacher Ahmed Al-Khair.

Khartoum witnessed since yesterday the arrival of teachers and revolutionary committees from the city of Kassala and Khushm al-Qirba, the birthplace of Ahmed al-Khair, and the expatriates were hosted in the Abbasiya district of Omdurman, one of the most prominent neighborhoods that witnessed confrontations between demonstrators and security forces during the protests.

The killing of Ahmed al-Khair (35 years), a teacher in Khashm al-Qorba in the eastern state of Kassala, shook internal public opinion on February 1, during the protests that led to the overthrow of the Bashir regime.

The beginning of justice
The court of the case received a remarkable follow-up as it marks the beginning of retribution for the killers of the protesters, who numbered more than ninety people, as well as more than a hundred of the protesters were killed by the events of the sit-in in front of the leadership of the army last June 3.

According to a member of the Central Committee of Teachers, Ammar Yusef, for Al-Jazeera Net, the teachers see in the Al-Moallem case court the embodiment of the values ​​of revolution and justice because he was a victim of an unjust system that shook the human conscience.

Youssef added that the assassination of Ahmed Al-Khair is a hideous and contrary to the Sudanese and human values ​​and deserves the most severe penalties for those convicted.

He continued, "The court is not retaliation, but rather (it is) anchoring the values ​​of justice and paralyzing the hand of any person from the security apparatus or any other person who thinks about any violation of human rights.

Cover-up case
After the court judge read his verdict against the accused, he asked the representative of the Guardians of Blood, Saad al-Khair (the victim's brother) to inform the court of the family's opinion regarding those condemned to death, reminding him of his pardon and forgiveness in Islam.

But Saad told the court, telling him that the family asked for retribution, and when the hall buzzed with arrogance and shouts of "Long live justice" at a time when one of the accused was screaming, "Monsters are monsters, we do not fear death."

In addition to the teachers committees - which participated in processions outside the court - male and female students of schools participated remarkably.

Saad Al-Khair had informed Al-Jazeera Net that the defunct regime had tried to avoid the murder of his brother by covering it up with the freedom that he had been poisoned by a meal during his arrest, and that the security apparatus initially refused to lift the immunity of the accused employees. He adds that the decision came on the 11th of last April in the fall of Al-Bashir, after which the investigation procedures will begin with the complainant and witnesses.

Taking the "martyr"
Security forces took teacher Ahmed al-Khair Thursday evening, January 31, from a pharmacy in the town of Khashm al-Qorba, accused of participating in a convoy calling for Bashir to step down on that day.

According to the court judge, the victim was beaten with water hoses from that moment until his arrival at the security headquarters in Khushm al-Qirba, and his night became painful.

The next morning, Ahmed al-Khair's mother was detained with him during Friday prayers, and after that a team from the security apparatus arrived from the city of Kassala, and the detainees, including Ahmed al-Khair, were beaten with water cannons while threatening the teacher "martyr" with rape.

According to Al-Hakam newspaper, the perpetrators enjoyed torture and beat the victim, and the forensic report demonstrated that severe beatings led to laceration in the subcutaneous tissue causing hemorrhage that led to the teacher entering a coma and then dying from a trauma.

"The verdict issued today constitutes a basis for justice that can be censored by every criminal who has committed a crime for which the law is accountable," indictment lawyer Adel Abdelghani said briefly.