South Sudan court clears Australian of murder charge

June 6, 2007 (CANBERRA) – The Australian authorities announced today that all charges, including one of murder, against Australian businessman George Forbes have been annulled by a Southern Sudan court, the Australian AAP News reported.

Forbes, 46, is expected to take the next available flight from Rumbek, in Southern Sudan, to Nairobi, Kenya, probably tomorrow, parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs Greg Hunt said.

Forbes and two Kenyan co-defendants, also convicted of murder, all work for a Kenyan construction company in Rumbek where the Ukrainian man’s body was found. One official has said a Sudanese man was also convicted in the case.

The Ukrainian man, a flight engineer for another firm, had been admitted into the Kenyan company’s compound because several locals were chasing him for reasons that were unclear, Reuters reported at the end of May.

The Australian and the Kenyans are among a wave of foreigners who have poured in to south Sudan since a 2005 peace deal ended over two decades of north-south civil war, paving the way for reconstruction of its tattered infrastructure.

(ST)