The US shows its “great concern” about the release in Sudan of a man convicted of the murder of a USAID member

2 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The United States has expressed “great concern” over the decision by Sudanese authorities to release a man convicted of the 2008 murder of a US employee of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to information collected by the Sudanese news portal Sudan Tribune, the convicted man, Abdelrauf abu Zaid, was released on Monday after nearly 15 years in prison. The man was sentenced to death along with three other people for the murder of John Granville and was released after an alleged payment of compensation to the family.

However, the vice spokesman for the US State Department, Vedant Patel, has indicated that Washington “is seeking clarity on the release” and has pointed to the “lack of transparency in the legal process that led to his release.”

“The man convicted of murder was designated a global terrorist by the United States in 2013,” Patel said at a press conference. “This is a matter that the staff of our Embassy (in Sudan) is addressing and following very closely,” he stressed.

Abu Zaid went on a hunger strike a few weeks ago to denounce the conditions of his imprisonment and affirmed that he had suffered “torture” at the hands of prison guards and warned of the worsening state of his health. Granville was killed along with a Sudanese citizen who worked as his driver.