Two SPLM-IO detainees are seen in South Sudan’s detention facility
November 14, 2018 (JUBA) – The recently freed South African military expert William Endley said he saw one of prisoners members that the main opposition group at the National Security Service Headquarters (the Blue House) in 2017.
Endley and James Gatdet Dak SPLM-IO leader’s spokesperson were released on 3 November after a presidential pardon announced during the peace celebration day on 31 October 2018.
Speaking to Voice of America’s South Sudan in Focus programme on Wednesday Endley said he saw Aggrey Idri in the National Security Service Headquarters (the Blue House), adding he and his friend Dong Samuel Luak were moved from the prison to another location.
“Aggrey and Dong were in the security house. But I did not see Dong, as he was kept downstairs. I only saw Aggrey,” he said during a seven minutes interview aired on Wednesday.
“They were taken away on the 27th of January 2017 and up to date we did not hear anything about them,” he added.
Dong, a South Sudanese human rights lawyer and activist, and Aggrey Idri, a vocal government critic and member of the SPLM-IO, disappeared off the streets of Nairobi on January 23 and 24, 2017, respectively.
Kenyan authorities denied any involvement in or knowledge of the abduction. Also, South Sudanese officials denied having them in Juba prison.
In January 2018, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said they have credible reports that “the two men had been seen in custody at the National Security Services (NSS) headquarters in Juba on January 25 and 26 2017 and were then removed from this facility on January 27”.
The two groups said they believe they were transferred to another facility under the control of the South Sudanese government.
Earlier this year, SPLM-IO officials told Sudan Tribune the two men were moved to a ghost house (unofficial detention facility) in Juba.
Last March 2018, a South Sudanese Lawyer Wani Santino petitioned the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights over the unlawful handover and detention of two South Sudanese refugees in Kenya.
Santino argued that the two refugees are under the protection of the 1951 convention on the refugees and pointed that there is no extradition agreement between Kenya and South Sudan.
However, up today the Banjul-based commission didn’t take any decision over the matter.
(ST)