Abdelraouf Abuzeid was previously convicted in connection with the shooting that killed a USAID employee and his driver.
The US has expressed “deep concern” over Sudan’s decision to release from prison a man convicted of killing a US diplomat and a Sudanese colleague.
so statement On Wednesday, the US State Department condemned the circumstances surrounding the release of Abdelrauf Abu Zeid, who was convicted in the 2008 shooting deaths of embassy employee John Glanville and Sudanese driver Abdel Rahman Abbas.
“We are deeply troubled by the lack of transparency in the legal process that led to the release of the lone individual in custody and the inaccurate claim that the release was agreed upon by the U.S. government,” Price said. ” he said.
Granville and Rahman Abbas, 33-year-old employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), were killed in a barrage of bullets on New Year’s Day 2008 during an attack in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
Abu Zeid faced the death penalty for his role in the attack before he was released on Monday.
News agency Reuters reported that Abu Zeid’s family said he was released as part of a reconciliation between the Sudanese government and the victims.
In March 2021, the Sudanese government paid $335 million to US survivors and families of victims killed in attacks linked to the country, including the 2008 mass shooting.
In a statement at the time, Blinken referred to the families of victims in the United States, saying, “I hope this will help them find solutions to the terrible tragedy that has occurred.” and Sudan relations can start a new chapter.”
The payment was part of an agreement in which the United States removed Sudan from Washington’s list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” Sudan She was delisted in December 2020. This is a move the government hoped would improve economic ties abroad.
In a State Department statement on Wednesday, the United States denied that Abu Zeid’s release was “agreed to by the U.S. government as part of the Sudanese government’s reconciliation.”
“We will continue to work to provide clarity on this decision,” the statement added.
On Wednesday, Glanville’s mother, Jane Glanville, said she was “horrified” to learn that one of the men involved in her son’s shooting had been released.
“Never [the 2021 settlement] Tell me that with that money I can release the men who killed John,” she told Reuters. “If it was part of that, I would never have accepted it.”
