Two Sudan rebels sentenced to life by Sennar court

The criminal court in Sinja, Sudan’s Sennar state, sentenced two members of an armed rebel group to life imprisonment on Thursday. The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) members Assir Amir Azaki and Abdallah El Zein Rajab were arrested by the Sudanese security apparatus in Blue Nile state in September 2011. The court accused them of fighting the government forces, when heavy clashes erupted between soldiers, pro-government militias, and the SPLM-N in Blue Nile in September 2011. The lawyer of the defendants, El Tijani Hassan, told Radio Dabanga that they are going to lodge an appeal with the supreme court.The Sinja court sentenced a total of 64 detainees to life imprisonment in March this year, for being involved as SPLM-N members in the Blue Nile ‘insurgence’. 17 rebels, in absentia, were sentenced to death by hanging, including Malik Agar, the SPLM-N chairman, and Yasir Arman, the Secretary-General of the SPLM-N. This trial lasted for nine months. File photo: Rebels of the SPLM-N in Sudan (archive) Related: SPLM-N denounces Sudan’s Sinja court verdicts (17 March 2014)