Former Wau County Commissioner Acquitted The Special Magistrate’s Court in Wau, Western Bahr el Ghazal State has acquitted the former County Commissioner John Peter Miskin of all the charges leveled against him for lack of sufficient evidence to nail him.
19 April 2013 The former Wau County Commissioner John Peter Miskin was acquitted of all charges by the Special Court in Wau. [File photo] By James Deng Dimo WAU, 19 April 2013 [Gurtong]- His trial follows last year’s Wau violence that erupted over the proposed transfer of the county headquarters to Bagari which led to loss of several lives and consequent detention of Miskin for allegedly instigating the violence. In March, Miskin was charged with ten counts; including charges against mobilizing the youth to destabilize the state after he resigned his post earlier in October 2012 as the county commissioner. On March Tuesday 26, the Special Court dropped out nine charges out of ten filed against Miskin. Based on Article 52 of the South Sudan punishment law, Bouka Ajowaj, the judge who presided over Miskin’s upheld only one charge that accused the former commissioner of instigating and inciting violence that led to loss of lives and destruction of property. This charge was however on Thursday dismissed due to lack of enough evidence. Speaking to the journalists in front of Wau North Court after the acquittal, the lawyer representing Miskin, Kur Lual Kur said it was not an easy case but the court managed to dig out the truth. “It was not easy for the judiciary but with human’s right mandates, I was acquitted,” he said. Members of Parliament Hassan Ngor Aguer and former State Government Minister for Information Sebit Baptism have also been acquitted early this month. The trial began in February the arrival of three judges from Juba to preside over the court hearings against the suspects of the Wau violence. In March, the court has sentence seven youth to one year imprisonment found guilty over the violence and dismissing four others. In February, Amnesty International released a report accusing Western Bahr El Ghazal government of arresting suspects without warrants and enough evidence. The report said 100 suspects were being detained in Wau Central Prison, including senior politicians, civil servants, and activists, members of state assembly, security members and journalists. State governor Rizik Zackaria Hassan however brushed aside the Amnesty International report, calling it unfair and bias. 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.
