Lawyer appeals for release of jailed businessman over ill-health
March 18, 2018 (JUBA) – The South Sudanese lawyer for businessman John Agou Wuoi, in jail for alleged involvement in corruption at the presidency, has called for his release over his poor health.
“John Agou was diagnosed with several diseases. He is physically weak and needs urgent medical intervention,” he said.
Agou is one of the 16 individuals accused of alleged corruption at the president’s office and arrested on 29 May 2015 together with four Kenyans who worked for Click Technologies Limited, a Juba-based IT company.
President Salva Kiir, on 6 December 2017, issued a Republican Order, pardoning the four Kenyans and five South Sudanese including Yel Luol Koor (ex-executive director at the presidency) on health and humanitarian grounds, minus Agou.
Citing a medical report, the lawyer said the embattled businessman suffers from chronic atropia gastritis, peptic ulcers, dyslipidemia and Malory Weiss Syndrome.
His situation, he further said, needed specialized treatment and management, unattainable from the prison facilities in South Sudan.
“We need an urgent intervention or step to be taken by the president according to the constitutional powers,” stressed Reech Ring.
The president is mandated, under Article 101(h) of South Sudan’s Transitional Constitution, to confirm death sentences, grant pardons, and remit convictions or penalties, according to this constitution and the law.
(ST)