A special court in South Sudan has ruled that it has the jurisdiction to prosecute conditional vice-president Riek Machar and seven co-perpetrators, accused of murder, betrayal and crimes against humanity.
The court rejected all objections through the legal team of Machar with regard to its authority, the constitutionalness of the procedure and the claim that he was immune to prosecution. The case will continue on Wednesday.
Machar has the charges against him who were brought against him two weeks ago Like a political “witch hunt”. They have called on the fear of returning to the civil war.
The charges stem from an attack in March by a militia that is reportedly connected to Machar, in which 250 soldiers and a general were killed.
Since then he has been under house arrest.
Machar’s defense team had argued that the alleged crimes should not be tried by a national court, but by a hybrid court under the African Union, in accordance with the Peace Agreement of 2018 that the five -year civil war between his armed forces and those who are loyal to President Salva Kiir.
However, the court argued that it had the authority to try national offenses, because a hybrid court had not yet been established.
“The special court enjoys jurisdiction to try this case according to the 2011 transitional conustation as amended,” said President James Alala.
It also rejected the argument of the Machar team that he had immunity through prosecution, adding that the provision only applied to the president.
“The first vice-president has no constitutional immunity, according to the transitional construction,” the judge said.
The court also drove two of Machar’s lawyers after the prosecution argued that they had no valid licenses.
The presidency judged that the two could only participate if they have renewed their licenses.
Machar’s chief lawyer Geri Raimondo Lubati told the court that his client and the co-accused “were subject to politized media campaign” by ministers and other senior officials.
“For the public, this behavior comes down to illegal and prior conviction of our accused and a flagrant violation of the constitutional guarantee of the suspicion of innocence … The accused is innocent until proven without reasonable doubt,” he said.
The charges have led to the fear of renewed conflict in the country, where the UN, the African Union and the neighboring countries all call for calmness in the newest country in the world, which only became independent of Sudan after decades of war after decades of war.
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