Death sentence for 17 SPLM-N leaders confirmed by Sudan court

The review office of the National Supreme Court of Khartoum has upheld the ruling of the execution for Malik Agar, the head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), and 16 other officials in the rebel movement. The seventeen members were tried in absentia in August 2014, and sentenced to death by hanging by the court in Sinja in January.

The court in Khartoum also upheld the execution of Manallah Hussein Huda on Thursday, and the sentence of life imprisonment of 46 other members of the SPLM-N.

Lawyer Tijani Hassan, head of the defence team of the detainees, said on Sunday that they received last Thursday's decision of the court's review office in response to their appeal they filed to the court on behalf of Manallah Hussein and others in the case of Blue Nile incidents.

The defence team of the SPLM-N members, who were imprisoned following the outbreak of incidents in Blue Nile state in September 2011, will hold a special meeting to consider the next step, said Hassan.

“All spent between one year and three-and-a-half years in prison before they were tried,” Hassan told Dabanga last year. “52 SPLM-N members were convicted so far, and 69 were acquitted.”