Court Summons Interior Minister For The Last Time The Special Court hearing the treason trial of the four political detainees in South Sudan has threatened to arrest the Interior Minister Aleu Ayieny Aleu over non-compliance to court summons as a prosecution witness. 01 April 2014 Court Summons Interior Minister For The Last Time Left-Right: Oyai Deng, Pagan Amum, Majak D'Agot, and Ezekiel Gatkouth in the court last week. [Gurtong]
By Francis Apiliga Lagu Juba, 31-Mar-2014 (Gurtong) - The prosecution named Aleu as one of the 13 prosecution witnesses but he has failed to appear to testify before the court on two different occasions. On Monday, he was expected to appear but he didn't show up which compelled the lead prosecutor James Mayen to request for adjournment of the trial. The defense team objected the application for adjournment and urged the court to proceed with the trial. "In the course of trial, the constitution demonstrates that in the event of unseriousness, the court will proceed," the lead defense lawyer Monyluak Alor Kuol said. The defense team accused the prosecution of delaying the trail process on several occasions. "The prosecution tries to discontinue the trial process based on claims that the seven accused persons and released on bail should be brought back," Alor said. "In the second session, the prosecution failed to bring the two prosecution witnesses citing unfounded justification that the head of military intelligence was outside the country. "Another prosecution witness Brig. Gen. Anyaso Deng Ajak was said to be outside Juba in the war front in Malakal. Both claims turned out to be false because they were all in town. The prosecution has failed to bring the minister of interior as witness. This has proved that the prosecution has lost control over prosecution witnesses," he said. The five judges consulted for five minutes before returning to the court. They adjourned the hearing to Tuesday and Friday. "The Minister of Interior Aleu Ayieny Aleu is summoned today (today) for a session tomorrow (Tuesday)," Charles Lino Abyei, one of the five judges said in a joint ruling. "The four witnesses namely Deng James Mayen, Arop Chan Akech, Kong Gai and Anyong Guoeth are summoned for the last chance for a session on Friday." The lead judge James Alala Deng warned: "Tell the minister to come or he will be arrested." The court has heard testimonies from nine prosecution witnesses so far and five more including the interior minister are yet to testify after which the defense case would start. The four accused persons; Pagan Amum, Majak D'Agot, Oyai Deng and Ezekiel Gatkouth are facing 11 charges including treason. They are accused of subverting the constitutional authority of the government and allegedly masterminding the "coup attempt" in mid-December 2013. 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]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oqousXuZ2Wei7kfuUc%3Dhcq6U2U_o9QvESmk8CtuQtr_Gw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
