A Sudanese court sentenced 24 members of a tribe to...

A Sudanese court sentenced 24 members of a tribe to death by hanging for killing 35 people during a raid on a village in western Sudan in 2002, the privately owned Akhbar al-Youm newspaper reported.
Amnesty said the convicts included a 15-year-old minor and the death sentences were issued by a Special Court in Nyala, South Darfur.
The court found the group guilty of murdering the villagers, looting property and burning buildings during the raid in the South Darfur state, the paper said.
Clashes driven by economic hardship are common in Darfur, near Sudan's border with Chad and the Central African Republic. Scarce water and grazing land has caused intense rivalry between cattle-raising Arab tribesmen and African farming communities.
The court also sentenced one member of the tribe to three years in jail for arms possession, while a minor defendant was given three years in a juvenile detention centre. Twelve members of the tribe were acquitted.
The sentence can be appealed, and no date has been set for the executions.
"The procedures in Special Courts set up under the State of Emergency are grossly unfair, The accused were tried without proper legal representation. They were held without access to family members and lawyers since their arrest in January," Amnesty International said.
The twenty-four men who were sentenced to death are: Al Doum Adam Abakar Ali, claimed to be 75 years old; Mohamed Omer Suliman Ahmed, claimed to be 71 years old; Ahmed Issa Haroon Abd Al Rahman; Suliman Al Doum Adam; Yaqoub Abd Allah Khair Allah; Abakr Aina Jaber; Abakr Fadel Mohamed Assil; Issa Ahmed Ibrahim Mohamed; Zakaria Ahmed Adam Hamidan; Zakaria Ahmed Adam Mohamed; Ali Omer Mohamed Baraka; Mousa Hussain Ahmed Azhaq; Abu Al Kassim Omer Adam; Al Mahdi Abd Al Jaber Adam; Fadel Adam Hamdan; Mohamed Issa Haroon Abd Allah; Hamed Ahmed Mousa; Ahmed Rahma Mohamed Asseil; Ismail Saleh Al Tahir Mohamed; Al Noor Rahma Mohamed Assil; Al Taieb Mohamed Ahmed; Abaker Idris Adam; Abd Al Rahim Mohamed Abd Allah and Al Tahir Ahmed Adam.