SPLM drops criminal charges against former detainees
April 16, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudan’s ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) agreed on Wednesday to drop criminal charges against leaders detained at the start of the December 2013 conflict.
Ann Itto, the acting secretary general of the SPLM, said the party at its political bureau meeting, agreed that all criminal charges against the former detainees be dropped to enhance their return to Juba.
“The political agreed all criminal charges against former detainees are dropped,” the top party official told Sudan Tribune on Thursday, adding that the provisions of the SPLM re-unification agreement signed in Arusha, Tanzania permits the former political detainees to return home, provided that they have no criminal charges against them.
Itto said the criminal charges had made it difficult for them to return home due to the uncertainty around who the charges applied to, adding the ruling party’s leadership must pave the way for peace and reconciliation.
Criminal charges against Amum, former justice minister John Luk, former deputy defence minister Majak D’Agot, former security minister Oyai Deng, former interior minister Gier Chuang Aluong and others were dropped by a special court in April 2014 after the Juba government came under intensive pressure to release the detainees.
The detainees, upon gaining their freedom, grouped themselves under the G-10, becoming a third bloc in the ongoing peace talks.
However, Itto said the charges were being dropped because of the G-10 and “had nothing to do with death or killing” during the 16-month-long conflict.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced from their homes since the struggle for leadership within the ruling party turned violence in December 2013.
(ST)