Italian freed after two months jail for company feud with S. Sudan

May 9, 2009 (JUBA) – A Italian contract engineer jailed in South Sudan
for over two months was freed Thursday after a visiting Italian envoy
sought the intervention of the region’s Vice President Riek Machar.

Piero Albino Previdi had been arrested March 2 after a row between his
employer, CEC International (Gruppo Gitto), and a local Sudanese
sub-contractor.

In July 2008 the regional Ministry of Transport and Roads had
terminated its contract with CEC for reconstructing roads in Juba and
the Juba International Airport, settling for 30 kilometres of road
asphalted by CEC rather than the planned 60 km.

The company owes the government and sub-contractor US$800,000,
according to a statement Friday from the Office of the Vice President
of Southern Sudan. The statement added that CEC after the termination
wrote a check to the sub-contractor but the check bounced twice.

“When the sub-contractor took the matter to the court, the man who
wrote the check left the country and disappeared,” stated the Vice
President’s director of communications.

Previdi, age 67, had no power in matters of payment but was detained
as the sole representative of CEC remaining in South Sudan.

While in Juba, the Italian special envoy Margherita Boniver dismissed
the charges made against Previdi: “If he had been part of that
clandestine plan, the company decision-makers would not have abandoned
him and run away with the money. The family in Italy is suing the same
company for putting their loved one’s life at risk in a foreign
country.”

Boniver, accompanied by Italy’s ambassador and other officials, met
with President Kiir and spent nearly four hours with Vice President
Machar, whose office credited him with securing the release of the
Italian man.

Machar, whom the Italian envoy called “a man of great political
ability,” realized that Previdi was innocent, wrote Boniver at her
Italian-language webpage. But since the case had already been referred
to the judiciary of Southern Sudan, Machar had to make numerous phone
calls to various departments, including the president of the court.

“The release of Piero Albino Previdi is an extraordinary achievement.
We are very happy,” stated Boniver.

Though Boniver credited the release on a conversation with Machar
about maintaining good bilateral political, commercial and economic
relations, the Vice President’s own office explained that three
definite concessions were exacted from the Italians.

First, if the parties fail to reach any “fruitful result,” the
government of Italy will be responsible. Secondly, the case will go to
arbitration court in Paris, France. Thirdly, if no settlement is
reached then the company’s assets left in Sudan, reportedly tantamount
to 8 or 12 million Euros, would cover the amount for which the company
is being sued.

Margherita Boniver represents Italy as Special Envoy for Humanitarian
Emergencies and Vulnerable Situations. This week she also paid visits
to Darfur and Khartoum. She left Juba with the freed contractor the
same day he was released.

(ST)