An editor with many conflicts
Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed was the founder and editor-in-chief of the private Arabic-language newspaper Al-Wifaq. He was an Islamist and a former member of the National Islamic Front, yet his writing brought him into conflict with government figures, opposition groups, armed movements and religious activists.
In 2005, his newspaper republished an online article questioning the ancestry of the Prophet Muhammad. Taha said he had published it in order to rebut it. He was detained, fined and ultimately acquitted of the most serious charge, while Al-Wifaq was suspended for three months. Demonstrators demanded that he be put to death. Other articles, including one disparaging Darfuri women amid reports of wartime sexual violence, caused separate outrage and litigation.
Abduction and murder
Late on 5 September 2006, masked armed men forced Taha into a vehicle outside his home in east Khartoum. His body was found the next day south of the capital. The killing shocked Sudan's press community, and journalists gathered at the morgue to demand protection.
The government's response also restricted scrutiny: Human Rights Watch documented an official ban on reporting or commenting on the case. Police announced 16 arrests by 25 September; a UN review later recorded that 73 people had been arrested during the broader operation.
Nineteen defendants and ten death sentences
Nineteen people, including two women, were brought to trial. Nine were discharged during the proceedings. On 10 November 2007, the Khartoum Criminal Court sentenced ten men of Darfuri origin to death. The Khartoum-North Court of Appeals affirmed the sentences on 13 March 2008.
The prosecution relied heavily on confessions and argued that anger over the January 2006 article about Darfuri women had led the defendants to plan the murder. The ten men withdrew their confessions in court and said investigators had threatened and tortured them into making the statements.
The UN finding on torture and arbitrary detention
In Opinion No. 38/2008, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found all ten men's detention arbitrary and in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Working Group recorded that requests for medical examinations were refused even though defendants still showed visible injuries. It concluded that a verdict based on torture-obtained confessions that were withdrawn in court could not be maintained.
The Working Group requested an immediate stay of execution. Amnesty International likewise said the defendants had allegedly been tortured into confessing and criticized their trial as unfair.
Nine executions
Sudanese authorities hanged nine of the convicted men on 13 April 2009. Contemporary official and press records confirm the executions and the defendants' continuing claims of innocence. This review did not locate a reliable final account explaining the disposition of the tenth death sentence.
The executions did not resolve the central evidentiary problem. The Committee to Protect Journalists continues to classify Taha's murder among unresolved journalist killings and reported widespread doubts about whether the executed men were responsible.
What is established—and what is not
It is established that Taha was abducted from outside his home and murdered in September 2006; that ten men were convicted and condemned; that a UN expert body found their detention arbitrary and their confessions tainted by torture; and that nine were executed. It is not established by a reliable, untainted final process who ordered and carried out the killing.
Current status
The domestic case ended in convictions and executions, but the international fair-trial record makes those outcomes unsafe as proof of factual responsibility. No credible retrial or renewed investigation identifying organizers and perpetrators was located through September 2026. The case is therefore classified as a contested prosecution with accountability unresolved.
Sources
- Committee to Protect Journalists — Mohammed Taha Mohammed Ahmed case record.
- UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention — Opinion No. 38/2008.
- Amnesty International — Sudan: Death Penalty, 12 November 2007.
- Amnesty International — appeal confirmation, 19 March 2008.
- Committee to Protect Journalists — executions trigger doubts, 17 April 2009.
- U.S. Department of State — 2009 Sudan human-rights report.
- Human Rights Watch — Sudan: Press Under Pressure, 6 November 2006.