A Sudanese court on Tuesday sentenced eight Darfur rebels to death, finding them guilty of terrorism, in the first such verdicts delivered for an unprecedented attack on the capital in May.
Judge Muntasim Mohamed Saleh handed down death sentences to the eight men, all from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group; freed another found not guilty and referred a 16-year-old to a special juvenile court.
"I find you guilty under the Sudanese counter-terrorism law, chapter five and six, and Sudanese criminal law, chapter 130," Saleh told the eight men who stood in silence in the dock as the verdict was read out.
"I sentence you to be hanged to death," he added.
The judge, presiding over the special court in Khartoum North, first read out a two-and-a-half hour summary of the court case and delivered the sentences after a 30-minute break to the eight men, aged between 25 and 35 years old.
Sudan set up four special courts in Khartoum and twin cities Khartoum North and Omdurman, to try dozens of suspects rounded up after the May 10 attack, which marked the first time decades of regional conflict reached the capital.
Those hauled before the courts since June have included Abdul Aziz Ashur, senior JEM commander and brother-in-law of overall leader Khalil Ibrahim. Ashur was not among the eight sentenced on Tuesday.
More than 222 people were killed when rebels thrust hundreds of kilometres (miles) across the sandy expanse from western Sudan's region of Darfur to Omdurman, just across the River Nile from the presidential palace.
Defence lawyers have argued that the special courts are unconstitutional and do not guarantee their clients' legal rights.
Under Sudanese law, any death sentence must be ratified by both an appeals' court and the high court. Then all death warrants must be signed and approved by President Omar al-Beshir.
Kamal Omar, one of Tuesday's defence lawyers, slammed the special courts as "political" and "not independent" and vowed to appeal.
"It is against Sudanese constitutional law because Sudanese constitutional law gives the citizen the right to be tried in the normal way. The defence team will appeal the decision of the court," he told AFP.
"It is a political court and ultimately if there is a solution to the Darfur crisis the president will let these people free," he added.
The International Criminal Court prosecutor has demanded Beshir's arrest for allegedly ordering his forces to annihilate three ethnic groups in Darfur, masterminding murder, torture, pillaging and using rape to commit genocide
Those three groups include the Masalit, Fur and Zaghawa, which is the tribe from which the majority of JEM members hail.
On a visit to Darfur last week, Beshir granted amnesty to 89 juveniles arrested by the Sudanese authorities following the JEM attack.
The United Nations says that up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the conflict erupted in February 2003. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.
The war began when African ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime and state-backed Arab militias, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.
