Panic as South Sudanese security operatives storm Chief Justice’s office
Article
Comments (2)
email Email
print Print
pdfSave
separation
increase
decrease
separation
separation
January 9, 2017 (JUBA) – Heavily armed operatives from South Sudan’s
National Security Service’s General Intelligence Bureau (GIB) stormed
the Chief Justice’s office in an attempt to arrest an aide to the
latter, multiple sources told Sudan Tribune.
JPEG - 37.4 kb
Southern Sudanese police officers on the streets of Juba (Photo
courtesy of the UN)
The incident, which occurred on Thursday last week, comes in the wake
of numerous media report on the judiciary believed, by security
operatives to have been leaked a close aide to Justice Chan Reec
Madut.
A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the
operatives confronted the aide to the Chief Justice as he headed back
to the office, following a lunch break.
“The security operatives pounced on him and threw him into a Toyota
Land Cruiser Pick-up that had been parked near the premises of the
Judiciary before driving him away”, narrated the official.
As part of the operation, operatives reportedly drove the aide to his
house, thoroughly searched for a laptop computer and flash disks.
“After failing to find laptop computer and flash disks at the house of
the aide, the heavily armed security operatives brought him back
[aide] to his office and entered the office forcefully with their guns
and ordered other employees in the office to raise their hands in the
air and surrender to them immediately or they will shoot them on the
spot,” the judicial official further told Sudan Tribune Friday.
The operatives, while in the aide’s office, allegedly threatened to
shoot anyone who resists arrest or refuses to cooperate with them.
The scuffle at the office of the aide reportedly attracted the
attention of the Chief Justice who was in office as events unfolded.
“As this shouting and scuffle was going on, the Chief Justice appeared
from his office inquiring about what was going on as the visibly
shaken aide was being manhandled by the security personnel”, the
official, who witnessed the bizarre incident, said.
A security officer, who led the search operation, reportedly told the
Chief Justice, “We have orders from above to arrest your aide and
confiscate computers belonging to him and take him to GIB
headquarters,” citing the aide’s alleged involvement in the leakage to
the media fraternity of sensitive documents regarding the case of the
16 persons convicted for corruption in the president’s office.
An agitated Chief Justice reportedly told the armed security
operatives to “immediately stop the illegal search and follow the
correct procedures if they have complaints against any of his aides”.
Another aide, who witnessed Thursday’s operation, said he reported the
matter to the Chief Justice and the latter immediately phoned Justice
Minister, Paulino Wanawilla, his National Security Services
counterpart, General Obuto Mamur Mete, Director General of General
Intelligence Bureau, General Thomas Duoth Guet as well as the Director
General of Internal Security Bureau, General Akol Koor Kuc to inform
them about what was happening at his office.
“Within no time, the two ministers accompanied by the two spy chiefs
arrived at the office of the Chief Justice and ordered for arrest of
the senior security officers who were leading the operations before
entering the Office of the Chief Justice for a lengthy meeting that
lasted more than three hours”, the staff told Sudan Tribune.
The Minister of National Security Services and his two Director
Generals reportedly denied any knowledge of Thursday’s operation.
“In particular, the Director General of GIB, Gen. Thomas Duoth Guet
expressed utter shock and dismay at the actions of his junior officers
and promised the Chief Justice and his boss Gen. Obuto Mamur Mete to
thoroughly investigate the matter and take serious actions against his
indiscipline junior officers who were behind this unfortunate
incident”, a source privy to the meeting, disclosed.
Meanwhile a relative to the Chief Justice aide, said security
operatives interrogated the latter, amidst claims that they had
allegedly been monitoring his phone communications as well as that of
the appellate judges who are reviewing the appeal case of the 16
persons accused of corruption involvement at the presidency.
“They [operatives] have even gone further to carry out surveillance on
these judges and their employees, they are tracking their every
movements and those of their close associates,” said the relative.
The surveillance mission is reportedly headed by Col. Napoleon Adok
Gai with support from Lt. Col. Guem David Diing, Maj. Charles Andrew
Churukali and 1st Lt. Adiing Deng, who are all from GIB.
Last year, a report by Legal Watch Associates South Sudan exposed gaps
in the manner in which justice was being administered from the time
the 16 suspects were arrested, arbitrarily detained, investigated,
tried and convicted with the most severe and maximum conviction under
the law.
Sudan Tribune was unable to get immediate responses from the senior
officers from both the departments of the National Security Service as
their known phones numbers either went unanswered or could not be
reached.
(ST)
Comments on the Sudan Tribune website must abide by the following
rules. Contravention of these rules will lead to the user losing their
Sudan Tribune account with immediate effect.
- No inciting violence
- No inappropriate or offensive language
- No racism, tribalism or sectarianism
- No inappropriate or derogatory remarks
- No deviation from the topic of the article
- No advertising, spamming or links
- No incomprehensible comments
Due to the unprecedented amount of racist and offensive language on
the site, Sudan Tribune tries to vet all comments on the site.
There is now also a limit of 400 words per comment. If you want to
express yourself in more detail than this allows, please e-mail your
comment as an article to [email protected]
Kind regards,
The Sudan Tribune editorial team.
10 January 05:56, by Kush Natives
Ah ah ah ah ah pathetic! Those aide to the justice department
should always keep their mouths shut, they MUST understand that there
are an issues needs to stay confidential that shouldn’t leak out of
the system, unless authorized by supreme court.
repondre message
10 January 06:22, by Che Nile
It’s the height of impunity to bully other institutions mandated
to carry out their function according to the law.
--
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected]
Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/d/forum/southsudankob
View this message at
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/southsudankob/topic-id/message-id
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout
---
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 https://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/SouthSudanKob/CAJb14oqEEt6ec6oT3gG0%3DgLXbc0TqYj6zY95%3Danzfse5CoW5ZA%40mail.gmail.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
