Wau Court Sentences 7 To One Year Imprisonment
A special court sitting in Wau has found seven youth guilty for the violence that rocked the town in December 2012 and sentenced them to one year jail term. 26 March 2013 By James Deng Dimo WAU, 26 March 2013 [Gurtong]-The court has also dismissed and freed four other suspects who were facing trial in connection to blocking of roads linking to the town. According to South Sudan criminal act 2008, Article 79 read by the Judge, Martin Hassan, John Zackaria, Daniel Scander and Simon Sarbino were found innocent of any offense. Meanwhile, Oliver Santino, Jacob Salvator, Andrea Karlo,Joseph Peter, David Sabino, Andrea Scander and Joseph Arkangelo were first convicted to serve one year imprisonment for the violence. According to the judge, the count for the one year period starts from the date of their arrest last year. In February, Amnesty International released a report that the government has detained scores of opposition figures without issuing arrest warrants or giving them access to lawyers since unrest broke out in December 2012. South Sudan has struggled to establish the rule of law since it split from Sudan in July in 2011 following a long civil war that left the new country awash with weapons. Ten people were killed in the town of Wau in December when security forces opened fire on a protest against the relocation of a local council headquarters. At least 13 others were killed during unrest that followed the shooting. Since the violence, the government of Bahr El Ghazal state has detained 100 people, among them opposition figures, civil society activists, journalists and security officers, Amnesty International said in a report. "Arrests of perceived opponents of the government continue to be carried out," the group said. "While some of these arrests appear to have a legitimate basis, evidence gathered by Amnesty International shows that many of the arrests were arbitrary and contravene provisions in national and international law," it said. The failure of the authorities to properly investigate the violence has increased tensions in Wau, Amnesty said. The Western Bahr el Ghazal State Governor, Rizik Hassan Zacharia criticized the report and said that the report is unfair and biased. The governor also criticized the report which he says ‘claims’ the demonstration was peaceful. He challenged the report arguing that the demonstration was not legal and that the demonstrators had not obtained a document from police. Posted in: Home, Governance -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
