Kober Prison | Credit | NYT

Thirty South Sudanese refugees have been released from prison in Sudan after being detained for various crimes, a human rights activist has said.

According to Achol Malong Deng, the 15 women and 15 men were released on Thursday after Amnesty International offered them legal aid.

The 30 prisoners, reportedly released from various prisons of El-Huda, Omdurman, Kober and El-Obeid had been charged with different with various crimes – ranging from murder to drug dealing in Sudan.

Some of them have been reportedly in jail for more than 20 years.

“Those who committed different crimes, mostly murder and selling of marijuana in Sudan, and had been sentenced to 15 or 20 years in prisons in Omdurman, El-Huda and Kober, were freed,” Ms. Malong told Eye Radio via telephone from Khartoum.

Agok Monywiir, a 47-year-old man from Gogrial State, who spent 18 years in El-Obeid Central Prison on murder charge, is among those released.

She said a Sudanese lawyer named Mohamed Ibrahim was hired by Amnesty International organization to help South Sudanese prisoners in Sudan.

According to the UNHCR, there are close to 290,000 South Sudanese refugees in Khartoum State.