A court in Nigeria has sentenced four individuals to death for carrying out an attack on a church and killing worshippers in the southwestern state of Ondo in 2022.

Forty-one believers were killed and more than 100 were injured when attackers opened fire during a Pentecost service at St. Francis Catholic Church in the city of Owo, according to the BBC.

In addition to the death sentences, the court in the capital, Abuja, sentenced Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al-Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik, and Abdulhalim Idris to 20 years in prison for membership in a terrorist organization.

Any death sentence in Nigeria requires presidential approval before it can be carried out. No executions have been conducted in the country for several years.

The presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, stated that the evidence presented against the defendants had not been challenged during cross-examination.

In his ruling, Judge Nwite said that the prosecution had proven the defendants’ guilt by presenting witnesses who saw the attack. In particular, one witness identified two of the defendants as participants in the assault.

One of the witnesses heard by the court was a woman who lost her left eye and both legs below the knee as a result of a dynamite charge planted by the attackers.

The nine charges included membership in a terrorist group, as well as planning and carrying out murders.

Prosecutor Ayodeji Adedipe said, “Justice has been served. Justice has prevailed for the victims who were brutally murdered in cold blood.”

Counsel for the convicted men stated that they would appeal the verdict.

During the trial, the defendants claimed that they had been tortured, including being suspended from the ceiling, beaten, and subjected to electric shocks to their genitals.

A fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, was fully acquitted due to insufficient evidence against him.