A Khartoum anti-terrorism court presided over by Judge Abdin Hamad has sentenced to death by hanging 22 South Sudanese nationals who allegedly fought for a Darfur rebel group.

The 25 South Sudanese are convicted under articles 21 (criminal involvement) 50 (undermining the constitutional system), 60 and 61 of the criminal law and articles 5 and 6 of anti-terrorism act and article 26 of the weapons and ammunition law.

The judge also sentenced three others to life imprisonment.

Sudanese security agents had arrested the 25 men who were aligned to the Justice and Equality Movement-Peace Wing (JEM-PW) led Bakhit Dabajo.

JEM-PW is a former Darfur rebel group that signed peace with the government and agreed to integrate its troops into the Sudanese army. Now, however, some of their soldiers have been detained after going to Khartoum for absorption in April of 2013. Among them are South Sudanese nationals.

When the absorbed soldiers entered integration and demobilization camps it became clear that 25 soldiers among them hailed from South Sudan prompting the reintegration committee to transport them to Khartoum in order to hand them over to the South Sudanese embassy.

Instead of being deported, however, they were arrested by security agents in Khartoum and brought to trial.

Mahjoub Abdullah, a member of the defense team, said in a press statement that they previously pushed for a presidential amnesty for the 25 members of the JEM-PW.

Mahjoub noted that one of the defense witnesses testified that the accused were members of the Sudanese rebel group before South Sudan’s independence and that they came to Khartoum under the presidential amnesty after the signing of a peace agreement to join the Doha Document.

Abdullah revealed that the anti-terrorism court allows for an appeal within a week to the Supreme Court of Appeals, whose decision will be final.

He stressed that the defense team will appeal, adding that the convicts are considered prisoners of war and that they should be treated according to the Geneva Convention.