Relatives decry "unlawful" detention of S. Sudan Chief Justice’s aide
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February 21, 2017 (JUBA) – A relative of Thomas Gama, an aide to South
Sudan’s Chief Justice Chan Reec Madut, has strongly condemned his
unlawful detention, calling for his immediate release.
JPEG - 37.4 kb
Southern Sudanese police officers on the streets of Juba (Photo
courtesy of the UN)
Gama, an eyewitness said, was abducted at gunpoint from Juba airport
by South Sudanese National Security Service operatives, last month.
“The unlawful continuous detention of Mr. Gama Thomas at the National
Security Service detention facility violates his constitutional rights
as enshrined in the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South
Sudan,” said the relative, who preferred not to be identified.
He said the former aide to the Chief Justice has not only been denied
access to family members, but cannot access legal counsel.
“He [Gama] has also not been allowed to seek medical treatment since
his arrest,” the relative further told Sudan Tribune on Monday.
Several attempts, he further stated, have in recent weeks been made at
the highest level of the National Security Service leadership,
including through the Minister for National Security Services in the
president’s office to visit Gama, but it failed.
“They [authorities] keep telling us to come tomorrow or the next day.
At other times, they just tell us Gama is being detained at the
Internal Security Bureau (ISB), when we go there, we are told he is
being held at the General Intelligence Bureau (GIB), so we really
don’t know his physical condition or his state of mind since he is
being held in solitary confinement”, explained the distraught family
member.
The former aide to the country’s Chief Justice is accused of his
alleged involvement in leaking to the media confidential court
documents, which contained opinions of one of the judges reviewing an
appeal case lodged by the 16 persons convicted to life imprisonment
for alleged corruption in the president’s office.
“We challenge the National Security Service to charge Gama Thomas
before a competent court of law if they have evidence to support
unsubstantiated accusations against him,” said the relative.
This convert security operation seem to has become a trend between
Kenya security services and their South Sudanese counterpart. In
October 2015, Susan Anyieth Chaat who is among the 16 persons serving
life imprisonment was also abducted by South Sudan National Security
Service agents in Nairobi with the help of Kenyan security agents and
deported to the South Sudanese capital, Juba without the due process
of the law and detained at the GIB headquarters and later taken to
court on trumped-up charges and eventually sentenced to life
imprisonment.
Meanwhile, a United Nations expert group on enforced disappearances
has called on the governments of Kenya and South Sudan to reveal the
fate of two South Sudanese dissidents who were abducted in the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi last month.
The two are Dong Samuel Luak, a human rights activist, who had been
given refugee status in Kenya, and Aggrey Idri Ezibon, chair of the
armed opposition’s (SPLM-IO) Humanitarian Affairs Committee.
Both individuals are members of the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement/Army In Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), a rebel faction.
Abduction of the duo, rights bodies say, was done with the involvement
of security personnel from Kenya and South Sudan.
“The ongoing hearings and recent arrest warrant issued for a suspect
linked to these disappearances are positive steps in the right
direction,” the U.N human rights experts said in a statement.
“However, efforts must be stepped up so as to ensure credible
investigations, including into the alleged role of Kenya security
agents, and promptly establish the whereabouts of the two men,” it
added, further emphasizing that enforced disappearance is a heinous
crime and an offence to human dignity.
The group of experts called on the authorities in Kenya and South
Sudan to guarantee the safety and protection of the two and afford
protection to witnesses who can help establish their whereabouts.
The group further stressed that any return of the activists or
deportation to South Sudan would be in violation of Article 8 of the
1992 UN Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance. The measure, it added, prohibits the return of a person
to any state where there are substantial grounds to believe that he
would be in danger of enforced disappearance.
(ST)
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21 February 09:55, by Kush Natives
Mr. Thomas Gama, at first, you should tell us or the public about
what have you done before you jumped to your unlawful arrest please!
Talk sense before you are completely detained. We all sensed that
you’re still linked to field IO, rather then the house IO! Is it true?
What I am trying to say is this, I am not denning your right as well
as any citizens. But, we MUST all respects our decision_
repondre message
21 February 10:01, by Kush Natives
_con. Whereby, we must always and foremost accepts our right or
wrong decision at the same time. Therefore, let all wait for the
court! I hope the supreme law of the land will set you free, if you’re
found innocent!
Thanks,
repondre message
21 February 12:20, by Lokoli
Kush Natives. There is no supreme law in South Sudan. Is law
for keeping cattle being carried by cattle keeper on south Sudanese.
repondre message
21 February 14:22, by Manyngoo
We are exactly in that era of Iddi Amin Dada. No rule of law. We
hope for the end of such system of governance.
repondre message
21 February 18:03, by Nationalist
SS is being ran by hungry wolves who think that no SS citizen
should talk his/her mind about the way these crocked spla/splm armed
robbers are behaving. timing is coming when we shall have no splm/spla
robbers in the independent states of Bar el ghazel, Upper Nile and
Equatoria. They should learn from the United States of Columbia
(Bolivia, Columbia, Peru.....)
repondre message
21 February 19:16, by jubaone
Hungry wolves? These are tailless monkeys who should be in
their bushes or cattle camps running naked after cows. The great SPLA
under Dr. Garang we knew has now turned into a bunch of thugs and
criminals better known as "Stupid People Lacking Attitudes",who rape,
kill and steal from ordinary citizens the people they are supposed to
defend.
repondre message
22 February 02:51, by john akeen
Jubaone,
I thought you said there is no educated dinka in SS so
know you are talking about the great dinka Dr. John G the person who
fought for SS that you are Calming is your freedom land and you don’t
want dinka in it, I’m I right. so tell me what did Reik M do for SSese
people then killing you and the people of SS. You know and I know and
the people of SS know that Reik was tried to kill Dr. J
repondre message
22 February 06:17, by jengelon
John Akeen
J1 said jenge oh sorry dinka are educated people in SS
but they are not civilized at all & would never be 1/2 SS freedom came
through Referendum not by guns points 3 Reik is not less than jce so
till then let us stop pointing fingers rather then having a long hands
shacking
repondre message
22 February 10:13, by ngadodo
dictatorship threatened chief justice which means that Lawyers
operating in the direction of Country dictatorship.
Lawyers, not independents in the Country.
repondre message
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