Charges that could bear the death sentence or life imprisonment were brought against 95 members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) at a special criminal court set up in Sinja.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Thursday, the member of the Sudanese Organization for the Defence of Rights and Freedoms, lawyer Al Tijani Hassan, reported that the court accused 78 suspects who are now detained by the government and another 17 who are facing trial in absentia, including SPLM-N leader Malik Agar.

The 17 accused in absentia are facing charges under articles 21, 25, 50, 51,186, and 187 of the Sudanese Penal Code as well as articles 5 and 6 of Anti-terrorism Law and article 26 of Ammunition Law 1986, whereas 78 suspects in detention face charges under articles 21,50 and 51 of the Penal Code and article 6 of Anti-terrorism law, according the rights defender.

“We had already presented the list of our defence team, afterward, the court set 21 and 12 February for the hearing of defence witnesses,” he explained. “All these charges against the accused amount to death penalty or life imprisonment especially for those who do not have defence witnesses.”

For their part, the SPLA-N detainees denied the charges against them by the court. Speaking to Radio Tamazuj yesterday yesterday, a detainee said they were just arrested without sufficient evidence in Damazin town.

“We were abruptly collected in Damazin town and tortured by the Sudanese military Intelligence so that we confess before the court that we were told by Malik Agar to instigate conflict in Blue Nile State,” he explained. 

He also added that some of the detainees are South Sudanese who had no ties to the violence in the state but simply had served in Joint Integrated Units (JIU), a pre-separation force that the Sudanese army operated jointly with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

About 6 out of the 78 detainees came from South Sudan and they are Col. Taj Edden Makuer Bol, Capt. Dok Koryom Dok, 1st Lt. Taban Garang Nhial, Walid Ahmed Saeed, Al Fateh Fadallah and Atem Atem.