HRW calls to release detained former S. Sudanese governor over detention without trial
March 1, 2022 (JUBA) – Human Rights Watch Tuesday called to release a former caretaker governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state who has been in jail without trial for seven months.
Kuel Aguer Kuel was arrested on August 2, 2021, for co-founding the People’s Coalition for Civil Action (PCCA), a group that called for peaceful protests across the country on August 30, 2021, to force the transitional government to step down.
Kuel was charged with five charges of offences against the state: subverting constitutional government; insurgency, banditry, sabotage, or terrorism; causing disaffection among police force or defence forces; publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to South Sudan; and undermining the authority of or insulting the president.
However, his Lawyers told HRW that the former governor has remained now seven months in jail without trial due to political interference by the Ministry of Justice.
“The prosecuting authorities have been very slow to carry out investigations and believe they are abusing their discretionary power about whether to take cases forward,” said a statement by the rights group extended to the Sudan Tribune.
According to the Criminal Procedure Code, the public prosecution has to decide whether to begin or dismiss criminal proceedings but it cannot keep a detainee in prison without a weekly approval of a high court judge.
The Court of Appeals, last February instructed the prosecution to present the case in court but nothing has happened, according to his lawyers.
Nyagoah Tut Pur, South Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch called for the speedy release of the former governor or trial. He stressed that extrajudicial detention, which is a serious violation of human rights, compromises the entire criminal system in South Sudan.
“The authorities have shown that they cannot guarantee them speedy or fair trials and so should at a minimum restore their liberty and respect their rights to freedom of opinion and expression,” said Pur.
HRW mentioned that Abraham Chol Akech, a self-proclaimed prophet in South Sudan, is undergoing a similar situation and called for his release too.
Akech has been under arrested since June 25,n 2021 because he predicted that President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Dr Riek Machar would be removed from power by July 9.
(ST)