A South Sudan military court Friday sentenced three soldiers to death by firing squad, and a fourth to 10 years' imprisonment, for killing two civilians in their homes in robbery-motivated attacks last year.
The victims -- Lilian Lurit, mother of a nine-month-old child, and Ayol Majak -- were killed in separate attacks at night, as gangs robbed their homes.
Two civilians who acted with the soldiers were also convicted -- one of them sentenced to life imprisonment and the other to eight years in jail.
All four soldiers, two of them with the rank of sergeant, have been dismissed from the army.
Brigadier General Santo Domic, a military spokesman, said the prosecution was the first of its kind to hold accountable soldiers who terrorise residential areas in South Sudan's capital, Juba, and elsewhere at night.
"This is a signal that the SSPDF (South Sudan People's Defence Force)... does not accommodate criminality," he told reporters after the ruling.
The convicted men's lawyer said they would appeal.
Amnesty International last year accused the government of South Sudan and its allied militias of carrying out "war crimes" of "staggering brutality" in attacks on civilians who it said in a report were "shot dead, burnt alive, hanged in trees, and run over with armoured vehicles."
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