S. Sudan law body bars outspoken lawyer from legal practice

April 27, 2017 (JUBA) – South Sudan Bar Association (SSBA), a body that regulates all practicing lawyers in the country, has barred senior advocate Kiir Chol Deng from active law practice.

The South Sudanese law entity is backed by Chief Justice, Chan Reech Madut, the country’s Justice Minister, Paulino Wanawilla and acting Secretary General of South Sudan’s ruling party (SPLM), Jemma Nunu Kumba.

Kiir, however, described the move undertaken by SSBA as “illegal”, and opposed any attempt by the Government of South Sudan to install its preferred candidate as the head of the bar association.

“The decision to bar me from practicing law is purely politically motivated and amounts to serious interference in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the Judiciary”, the advocate told Sudan Tribune Thursday.

He added, “Such politically-motivated decisions will negatively undermine the rule of law in South Sudan”.

Sudan Tribune understands that the lawyer could be a target for sustained criticisms on the way judicial matters were being handled.

Kiir, one of the legal counsels representing those accused of corruption in the president’s office, played a key role in the recent ruling by the court of appeal to quash and order retrial of the case.

The SSBA’s decision, a source further told Sudan Tribune, was hurriedly made to “isolate Kiir from representing his clients either at the retrial as ordered by the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court”.

The lawyer, in the past, successfully challenged a High Court ruling, citing harassment and interference by the national security service to influence the ruling against his clients in favour of the government. As such, he was threatened at gunpoint within the court premises by the national security services personnel in the full view of the presiding judge, prompting him to withdraw from the case.

Kiir, a commissioner for oaths, has vowed legal against the legal body.

(ST)