In March, the director-general of the central prison...

In March, the director-general of the central prison of Kober in Khartoum North, Gen. Muhammad Ishaq Jibril, revealed that some 85 persons sentenced to death are in prisons pending the Supreme Court's approval to carry out the verdicts. The director stressed that his department has not withheld the implementation of any hudud [Koranic punishment] after the ruling of the Supreme Court has been forwarded to the prison authorities, stressing that his administration is obliged to carry out any sentence 24 hours after receiving the approval of the Supreme Court. He said that various procedures are followed in carrying out such death sentences, including the notification of the convicted, writing his will, weighing the person to be executed and taking him to an area near the execution place, and at the same time notifying his relatives that they may claim the body. Gen. Jibril said the sentence is usually carried out at 2.00 p.m. local time and in the presence of the relatives of the victim, so that they might witness the scene, and pardon him at the last moment. He said a judge and a physician also attend the execution, adding that death sentences are not carried out during official holidays, fetes, religious occasions and the holy month of Ramadan.