Sudan Rebel Chiefs Sentenced to Death in Absentia
A Sudanese court on Thursday sentenced to death in absentia a former governor who is now a rebel leader, along with another insurgent chief, a lawyer said.
Rebels dismissed the verdict as meaningless.
"Seventeen people were sentenced in absentia to be executed by hanging. These include Malik Agar and Yassir Arman," said Al-Tigani Hassan, a lawyer who was present for the verdict in Singa town, the capital of Sennar state.
Agar, formerly the elected governor of Blue Nile state, is chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), and Arman is secretary general of the movement.
The rebels have been fighting in South Kordofan and Blue Nile for almost three years.
"It is a drama, baseless drama," SPLM-N spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi told AFP after the verdict. "Nobody will recognize this."
The sentences came at the end of a nine-month trial, but also followed by 12 days the adjournment of African Union-mediated peace talks between Khartoum and the SPLM-N in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The two sides were deadlocked, said the AU.
It gave them until April 30 to reach a peace deal in the conflict which, according to the United Nations, has displaced or otherwise affected an estimated 1.2 million people.
Arman heads the SPLM-N delegation at the talks.
All the accused belonged to the SPLM-N and were convicted of terrorism, weapons and other criminal charges stemming from the September 2011 start of the war in Blue Nile, Hassan said.
Shortly after fighting began, authorities rounded up SPLM-N members across Sudan and banned the organization which was then the country's main opposition party.
The 17 sentenced to death had no legal representation in court, said Hassan.
He was part of the defense team for another 78 SPLM-N accused who were in custody.
Of these, 31 were acquitted, 46 were given life sentences and one was sentenced to death along with the 17 convicted in absentia, the lawyer said.
Lodi agreed that the accused were SPLM-N members but said that this was not a crime in itself.
Talks between the government and SPLM-N resumed in February for the first time in nearly a year, after President Omar al-Bashir called for a wide-ranging national dialogue, including with rebels in the country ravaged by poverty, insurgency and political turmoil.
Like the 11-year-old insurgency in western Sudan's Darfur region, the war has been fueled by complaints among non-Arab groups of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated regime.
The peace talks have made slow progress at the two sessions so far held.
After the first adjournment, rockets believed to be fired by rebels rained down on Kadugli town, the capital of South Kordofan.
The AU presented both sides with a draft agreement that would put in place an immediate ceasefire and allow aid to reach "all affected persons".
It said the government and rebels would "affirm the need for an inclusive and holistic process of national dialogue and constitutional reform".
Such a process would uphold the principles of democracy, unity in diversity and the rights and equality of all citizens, it said.
At the most recent talks, the SPLM-N presented "a fundamentally different proposal, which rendered an agreement unattainable", the mediator said.
The AU's peace and security council then re-emphasized "the urgency of stopping the war and giving a chance to dialogue to resolve the deep-rooted problems of Sudan".
Bashir and Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohammed Hussein are both wanted by The Hague-based International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Fighting continued on Thursday as the government bombed the rebel stronghold of Kauda, Lodi said. The army spokesman could not be immediately reached for comment.
Source: Agence France Presse
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