Sudan’s public prosecution on Thursday said a mass grave that most likely contains remains of 28 military officers executed in 1990 for plotting an attempted coup against the former President Omar al-Bashir.

The army officers were executed in mysterious circumstances after a military trial one year after Bashir himself took the power in a coup in 1989. Their burial site was not revealed for decades.

"The public prosecution managed to find a mass grave that data indicates that it is most likely the graveyard where the bodies of the officers who were killed and buried in a brutal manner," the public prosecutor said in a statement.

The statement added that a team of 29 experts reached this result after an effort that lasted for three weeks, and more forensic and investigative measures will be taken in the site.

The public prosecutor assured the families of the executed army officers that "such crimes will not pass without a just trial".

Bashir appeared in court on Tuesday at the opening of his trial for leading the military coup that brought him to power in 1989. He was ousted by the military in April 2019, after months of protests.

Bashir's lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.