At least 30 political detainees have been released as part of the presidential amnesty declared earlier this year, the NationalSecurity has said.

They include Justin Wanawila Bilal, a religious leader who spent three years at a security detention facility in Juba.

The move follows repeated calls by human rights watchdogs and the international community to free the men as promised by President Salva Kiir.

The Director of Legal Affairs at the Internal Security Bureau, Jalban Obaj, told the state-run SSBC that the release was “unconditional”.

Most of the men were reportedly thrown in for supporting the opposition led by Dr Riek Machar, the former first vice president.

When President Salva Kiir declared the amnesty in March, he immediately released the former Governor of Wau State, Elias Waya and his former deputy, Andrea Dominic.

Human rights groups, especially Amnesty International, earlier reported that the men were “arrested without charge and held in torturous conditions”.