NOTE The following text is a quote:
www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2013/07/211513.htm
Terrorist Designation of Abd Al-Ra’Ouf Abu Zaid Mohamed Hamza
Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
July 3, 2013
The U.S. Department of State has designated Abd Al-Ra’Ouf Abu Zaid Mohamed Hamza under Executive Order 13224, which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism. As a result of this designation, all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which Hamza has any interest is blocked and any assets he may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen. U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with him.
Hamza, with three co-conspirators, participated in an armed attack in Khartoum, Sudan on January 1, 2008, which resulted in the deaths of a U.S. diplomat serving with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), John Michael Granville, and a locally employed U.S. Embassy staff member, Adbelrahman Abbas Rahama. The attack occurred when Granville and Abbas were leaving a New Year’s Eve party in Khartoum. Granville worked on democracy and governance programs for USAID.
The four men were convicted of murder and sentenced to death in a Sudanese criminal court in 2009. In 2010, the four men escaped from a maximum security prison, killing a Sudanese police officer and wounding another in the process. Shortly thereafter, Hamza was recaptured and is currently in prison in Khartoum. Another escapee was reportedly killed in Somalia in 2011, and the other two remain fugitives at large. These two fugitives, Abdelbasit Alhaj Alhasan Haj Hamad and Mohamed Makawi Ibrahim Mohamed, were designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under E.O. 13224 on January 8, 2013 and remain at large. The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program has authorized rewards of up to $5 million each for information leading to the capture of the two fugitives.
In making this designation, the Department seeks to emphasize to the public and, in particular, to the Granville and Abbas families, our commitment to justice prevailing in this case.
PRN: 2013/0841
http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/07/us_adds_sudanese_al.php
“US adds Sudanese al Qaeda operative involved in murder of diplomat to list of terrorists”
By BILL ROGGIO
July 3, 2013
SNIPPET: “The US government has added Abd Al-Ra’Ouf Abu Zaid Mohamed Hamza, an al Qaeda-linked operative who was involved in the murder a US diplomat and his driver in Khartoum in 2008, to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. Hamza’s father is a senior cleric in a jihadist group that claimed the attack and is closely tied to al Qaeda in the Sudan.”
SNIPPET: “The murder of Granville and his driver was claimed by both al Qaeda in the Land of the Two Niles and by another Sudanese terror group, Ansar al-Tawhid (Partisans of Monotheism). Al Qaeda in the Land of the Two Niles claimed the attack was part of the global jihad, while Ansar al-Tawhid said it was to halt the spread of Christianity and avenge the humiliation of Muslims.
Hamza’s father is a senior cleric in Ansar al-Tawhid.
US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal that the two groups operate in close coordination and often pool resources and personnel.”