Australian convicted murder in Sudan

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Australian man in South Sudan convicted of murder

22 May 2007

KHARTOUM, May 22 (Reuters) - An Australian man was convicted in a Sudanese court of murdering a Ukrainian national found hanged from a towel rack in the southern town of Rumbek, British and Australian officials said on Tuesday.

"The man in question has been convicted but he has not been sentenced," a British diplomat in Khartoum told Reuters. The British embassy has been providing consular assistance to the man because Australia has no embassy in the country.

The officials said George Forbes and two Kenyan co-defendants were convicted of the murder on Monday. All three work for a Kenyan construction company in Rumbek where the Ukrainian man's body was found. One official said a Sudanese man was also convicted.

Under Sudanese law, the men could face the death penalty. Officials said the court was seeking contact with the Ukrainian man's family before sentencing, and that it was possible the men could get a lesser penalty including paying compensation money.

The men were "shocked and surprised" by the verdict, said Ian Ruff, a Juba-based British consular official in Rumbek for the trial.

A spokesman for Australia's Foreign Affairs department said he expected that Forbes "will be consulting his legal advisers about the options for an appeal".

Peter Angore, the Kenyan Acting Consular General in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, has said the findings of two independent post mortem reports concluded that the death was suicide. But he said local authorities had rejected the results.

Forbes complained during the trial that he had not been allowed to submit evidence that the death was a result of suicide. The family of the Ukrainian man has asked that the matter be dropped, according to Rumbek's deputy governor.

But Ruff said a request to drop the matter needed to be made formally by the Ukrainian embassy in Khartoum.

The Ukrainian man, a flight engineer for another firm, had been admitted into the Kenyan company's compound because several locals were chasing him for reasons that were unclear, sources close to the case said.

Australia's ambassador to Cairo, who is also accredited for Sudan, was on his way to Rumbek to offer consular assistance.

The Australian and the Kenyans are among a wave of foreigners who have poured in to south Sudan since a 2005 peace deal ended over two decades of north-south civil war, paving the way for reconstruction of its tattered infrastructure.

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Australian to appeal against Sudanese verdict

The family of an Australian man facing the death penalty after a Sudanese court found him guilty of the murder of an Ukrainian flight engineer said it was likely the verdict would be appealed against.

The court found that George Forbes, 45, a construction manager with Kenyan firm Trax International, killed Ukrainian flight engineer Mykola Serebrenikov.

An autopsy concluded the death was suicide but Mr Forbes and three colleagues were charged over the death.

Mr Forbes was born in Kenya but migrated to Australia 20 years ago and lived in Sydney and Brisbane before travelling to Africa.

Gerald Taylor, a relative of Mr Forbes who is helping to co-ordinate his defence, said it was likely Mr Forbes would appeal against the verdict.

"We are all a bit depressed about the verdict," he said.

"It now looks like we are in for the long haul on this case."

It is unclear when the men will be sentenced, but Mr Taylor said the judge had requested a member of the dead man's family be present in court.

The judge has told Mr Forbes's family to contact Mr Serebrenikov's relatives, but Mr Taylor said he had not had any contact with the dead man's family and did not know how to locate them.

An Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman said the judge would consult the victim's family in determining the sentence.

"In keeping with local law, we understand the judge will pass the sentence once he has heard from the family of the deceased as to what punishment they want," the spokesman said.

"This could involve the death penalty, imprisonment, compensation or release."

Mr Forbes and his colleagues were released from prison last month and were being held under armed guard at the Trax compound, where Mr Forbes was receiving treatment for a kidney complaint.

But after yesterday's verdict all four men were returned to prison, where they will be held until they are sentenced.

The DFAT spokesman said a British official had attended yesterday's hearing on behalf of the Australian Government, which has no post in Sudan, and had appealed to the judge to have Mr Forbes and his co-defendants returned to their compound on health grounds.

When his application was rejected, the British Consul assisted with the provision of necessities to Mr Forbes in prison.

The spokesman said Australia's ambassador to Sudan, Robert Bowker, would support another appeal for the men's release which would be submitted to the president of the Appeal Court today.

Dr Bowker will travel from his Cairo base to Rumbek "to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure Mr Forbes's legal rights, health and welfare are protected'', including identifying further legal representation for the Australian if necessary, the spokesman said.

The spokesman said the Australian Government had taken a "close and active interest" in Mr Forbes's situation through representations to local authorities by the ambassador and the Australian High Commission in Nairobi.

The ambassador travelled to Rumbek earlier this month for Mr Forbes's trial and was present when he appeared in court on May 7 and 8. During his visit the ambassador met the acting governor, police chief and the president of the Court of Appeal.

Mr. Forbes decided to go to Africa a year ago to work because of the generous pay involved, but also had a strong passion for the continent where he spent most of his childhood.

Accoding to a friend of Mr. Forbes, the jail is quite disgusting; "we're talking about wandering around up to your ankles in human faeces and urine and vomit and so George got pretty sick in jail"

"They got him out of there on health reasons and placed under house arrest and from there on it just seemed to spiral."

He said he found it hard to believe that his friend was capable of murder.