Two Christian pastors are facing trumped-up charges punishable by death in Sudan for openly practising their faith in a country known for persecuting Christians.
A court in Sudan recently ruled that Presbyterian pastors Yat Michael Ruot and Peter Yein Reith may be charged with espionage and for undermining the constitution, which is punishable by death.
They are also facing charges for allegedly promoting hatred among or against sects, offending Islamic belief, disturbing public peace, and committing blasphemy.
Ruot was arrested last December after he delivered a Sunday sermon in Omdurman, a Sudanese city across the Nile from Khartoum.
A few weeks later, Reith was also arrested after he inquired about Ruot at Sudan's Office of Religious Affairs.
The pastors, who are both from the Presbyterian Evangelical Church, are currently being held by Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).
The American Center for Liberty and Justice (ACLJ), which has been monitoring the case of the two pastors in Sudan, reported that the NISS did not present much evidence during the preliminary trial of Ruot and Reith.
"The only evidence brought by the prosecution against the Christian pastors was a sermon Pastor Michael gave, a sermon that was supported by Christian doctrine shared by their common denomination," Tiffany Barrans, international legal director at the ACLJ, said in a statement.
The ACLJ also reported that Sudanese prosecutors presented as evidence before the court maps and documents supposedly found in one of the laptops the NISS confiscated from the pastors without their knowledge.
In a related development, the pastors' attorney, Mohamed Mustafa, was also arrested on Wednesday, this time for supposedly preventing Sudanese authorities from demolishing a part of the Khartoum Bhari Evangelical Church.
Sudan ranked No. 6 on a list made by the group Open Doors US of 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution.
