• Urgent Action

Urgent Action: Young Man at Imminent Risk of Execution (Sudan: UA 103.19)

August 6, 2019

Amnesty International is alarmed that the Constitutional Court of Sudan confirmed the death sentence against Abbas Mohammed Nur Musa on 20 May 2019. Abbas had appealed his death sentence after being convicted of stabbing a 17-year-old boy to death. The incident happened on 27 August 2013 when Abbas was 15 years old. International human rights law strictly prohibits the use of the death penalty for offences committed by persons below 18 years of age.

TAKE ACTION:
  1. Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
  2. Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 103.19. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Head of the Transitional Military Council The People’s Palace PO Box 281 Khartoum, Sudan Salutation: Your Excellency
Representative Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed Permanent Mission of the Republic of Sudan 305 East 47th Street 4th Floor New York, NY 10017 Phone: 212 573 6033 I Fax: 212 573 6160 Email: [email protected] Salutation: Dear Representative
Your Excellency Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, I am writing to you because I am alarmed that the Constitutional Court of Sudan confirmed the death sentence against Abbas Mohammed Nur Musa on 20 May 2019. Abbas had appealed his death sentence after being convicted of stabbing a 17-year-old boy to death. The incident happened on 27 August 2013 when Abbas was a child, aged 15 years old. According to Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of a Child, which Sudan has been party to since 1990, “a child means every human being below the age of eighteen years.” Under Article 37(a) of the Convention, “Neither capital punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons below eighteen years of age”. However, the Constitutional Court used an ambiguous determination of childhood as “attainment of puberty” in accordance with Article 3 of Sudan’s Criminal Act of 1991 to justify the death sentence against Abbas. I urge you to ensure that the death sentence imposed on Abbas Mohammed Nur Musa, who was 15 years old at the time of the crime he was convicted of, is immediately commuted; amend the Child Act, 2010 to completely abolish, without any discretion by the courts or other exceptions, the use of the death penalty for crimes committed by people below the age of 18; harmonize legislation and practice with regard to the definition of the child or childhood in line with Sudan’s obligations under international law; establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. Yours sincerely, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Downloads