KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Hundreds of protesters gathered at the funeral of a Darfuri student who colleagues said was abducted, tortured and killed by Sudanese authorities in a case that has sparked tensions ahead of elections.
Sudanese security services have denied any involvement in the death of Mohamed Musa, 23, who fellow students told Reuters was abducted in Khartoum on Wednesday and later found dead and disfigured.
Around 600 Darfuris, students and other protesters gathered outside Musa's family house in the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman on Monday morning chanting "justice" and "revolution till victory," said a Reuters witness.
Scores of armed riot police and security officers surrounded the home while mourning relatives sat inside with the student's body.
"I have lost my son ... I want justice from the government, justice for my son. I want to know who killed him," Musa's father Musa Abdullah Bahar al Din told Reuters, breaking down in tears.
The funeral comes days after the start of campaigning in Sudan's first multiparty elections in almost a quarter of a century, due in April.
Sudan's seven-year Darfur conflict, and the powers of Sudan's extensive security services, have become central issues in the election campaign that sets Sudan's sitting president Omar Hassan al-Bashir against 11 other candidates.
Presidential candidate Yasir Arman was greeted with chants of "Yasir for change" as he arrived at the house with other candidates from his party, the former southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Arman earlier said the case raised questions about the excessive powers of Sudanese security, adding there were doubts over whether Sudan could have fair elections.
Police officers on Saturday told Reuters they had found Musa' body in the street and denied he had ever been arrested.
"We consider this to be a normal crime," a security source said.
Khartoum University students who gathered around a morgue where Musa was taken earlier in the week said they had seen the body, adding his hands were burnt, his head and body beaten, cut and swollen and his clothes soaked in blood.
They blamed President Bashir's ruling National Congress Party (NCP) for the abduction, saying they were always targeting and beating Darfuri students.
Sudan's opposition say April's elections cannot be credible while the conflict continues in the vast western region of Darfur. It remains under emergency law, with sporadic clashes and more than 2 million people languishing in camps.
The United Nations estimates 300,000 people have died in Darfur's humanitarian crisis since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect of the region.
(Reporting by Khaled Abdel Aziz; Writing by Andrew Heavens; Editing by Giles Elgood)
