The South Sudan Court of Appeal has ordered for the retrial of four Kenyans popularly referred to as the “Juba Four”, who had been jailed for 72 years over fraud claims.

In an 80-page ruling, the South Sudan court further directed that the accused remain at Juba Central Prison during the retrial.

The Juba four, namely; Antony Keya, Boniface Muriuki, Ravi Ghaghda and Anthony Wazome have been languishing in prison after they were arrested on May 29, 2015 by the National Security Service of the government of South Sudan. They were convicted in June 2016 and jailed for life for allegedly stealing 1.4 billion from President Salva Kiir’s office.

The accused are former employees of a company known as Click Technologies limited owned by John Ogou, a politician and brother-in-law of South Sudan President Salva Kiir who used to work as a senior security officer in President Kiir’s office, before he was accused of forging documents bearing the president’s signature to secure financial approvals from the country’s central bank.

Their families and human rights activists have been putting pressure on the government to intervene on the case and bring the four Kenyans home.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHCR) last November sued foreign Affairs cabinet secretary Amina Mohammed, her Principal Secretary and the Attorney-General Githu Muigai over the detention of the four and also accused the government of hiding crucial information from families of the four victims.