South Sudan detains Ugandan community leader

September 11, 2014 (WUNROCK) – A Ugandan community leader has been detained since last Thursday after being arrested while attempting to leave the capital, Juba, his wife, Ahubisa Paruw, told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

Tibo Bruhan Obiga is currently being held in Juba’s central prison.

It is understood Obiga was arrested in connection to a case involving two Ugandan national who had skipped bail in South Sudan and returned to their home country.

However, Obiga’s wife said her husband had been innocently arrested and had no connection to the case or the individuals involved.

She said it had been alleged that a Ugandan national identified as “Kyambade” had gone to bail out another Ugandan when he was charged with knocking somebody down.

Paruw said her husband Obiga had only learnt of the case after being called to appear in court last Thursday prior to his arrest.

“They questioned my husband about an accident case, but as he was having no idea, he said he did not know anything about the case because since from the beginning he was not involved in this case,” she said, stressing her husband’s role as a community leader did not extend to bailing out suspects from jail.

“My husband’s position [does not] tolerate no offence and if it is a matter of his being a Ugandan’s community leader in Juba [that] does not cover bailing out criminals from prison,” she said.

According to Paruw, the court had demanded her husband present the suspects in his capacity as a Ugandan community leader or pay a fine of 15,000 South Sudanese pounds (SSP) to bail himself out from prison.

Paruw has expressed concern over her husband’s health and wellbeing in prison, saying he suffered from high blood pressure. She is calling on the South Sudanese government to immediately release her husband without conditions.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan embassy in South Sudan has promised to raise the case with South Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs.

(ST)