Khartoum, May 25 (SUNA) - The National Assembly, headed by its Speaker Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Tahir, Monday ratified the Criminal Law for the year 2009 after introduction of amendments in it by the assembly's Legislation, Justice and Human Rights Committees in the third reading phase.
The National Assembly also heard response of the Minister of Defence, Gen. Abdul-Rahim Mohamed Hussein, to an assembly's query on the bombing of a convoy composed of around 1000 civilians in the Red Sea State, explaining that the issue was a smuggling process at the border with Egypt. He disclosed that 119 people were killed; among them were 56 smugglers and 63 smuggled persons from Ethiopian, Somali and other nationalities. Gen. Hussein indicated that this issue is still under investigation, referring to coordination in this regard between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the concerned security organs and neighbouring countries toward identifying the facts. The Minister of Defence responded before the National Assembly to a query on the Chadian attacks on Sudan. He said that these aggression were staged through a big support from the Chadian government to the Justice and Equality Movement. He said that the Armed Forces has worked out a complete plan and is quite ready to repulse any aggression and to defend the homeland, adding that there were no losses in lives. MO/MO