A Sudanese court sentenced 28 men yesterday to between five and 15 years in jail for involvement in an attempted coup. The men were among 81 civilians, including members of the opposition Islamist Popular Congress (PCP) party, on trial accused of helping organize the September coup. Nine were tried in absentia. All the other men were acquitted and freed. "The men were not given the death sentence or life sentences because they are politicians," the judge said after the sentences were announced. Kamal Omar, the men's lead lawyer, has previously said around 15 to 20 of the men indicted were members of the PCP. It was not immediately clear if any of those found guilty were members. Twenty-one men from the Sudanese armed forces are also being tried in a military court for involvement in the coup.The court acquitted 53 other defendants, including nine tried in absentia, of all charges leveled against them. Eight of those found guilty received 15-year prison terms, six were sentenced to 10 years and 14 were handed five years in jail. Al-Hajj Adam Youssef, who had been accused of being the group's ring-leader, and Mubruk Mubarak Salim, leader of the rebel Free Lions Movement, were among those acquitted. "The government is a hireling that must be changed," the defendants chanted from their holding pen in the courtroom, after the presiding judge announced the verdicts. "The court is unjust," they added.
The 72 members of the group present during the trial proceedings were arrested last year on charges of involvement in a coup attempt by Darfur rebel sympathizers, allegedly masterminded by the Popular Congress party of Islamist leader Hassan Turabi. Most of them have made little secret of their sympathy for the jailed Turabi, who was not put on trial for the coup plot.