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 Court Drops Interior Minister As Prosecution Witness
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Court Drops Interior Minister As Prosecution Witness
The Special Court hearing the treason trial of four senior South Sudanese politicians has dropped the Interior Minister Aleu Ayieny Aleu, as prosecution witness after failing to appear before the court four times.
01 April 2014
By Francis Apiliga Lagu
Juba, 01-April-2014 (Gurtong) - Aleu, whom the defense team considers a crucial prosecution witness was to appear for the last time on Tuesday but failed to show up. The head of prosecution panel James Mayen requested the court to scrap the name of the minister from the prosecution witnesses’ list.
The defense team accepted the dropping of Hon. Aleu but urged the court to discard all evidence adduced before the court by him (minister). “The minister of interior as far as we know has produced the most crucial evidence that is central to the case,” the lead defense consul Monyluak Alor said after the court upheld dropping Aleu as prosecution witness.
“We think absenting himself in this manner is a great service to the defense team.” The court yesterday threatened to arrest the minister for non-compliance to summons as a prosecution witness.
According a lawyer who attended the brief session on Tuesday, the dropping of the minister has excused him from arrest. The court has heard testimonies from nine prosecution witnesses so far and four more are set to testify on Friday.
The four accused; 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.
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Deng
فيس بوك
تويتر
انستقرام
يوتيوب
بنتيريست