The police in Aweil town, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, on Tuesday, released three workers of Aweil Grand Hotel who were arrested after an Eritrean businessman was found dead at the hotel last Friday, the police spokesman said.
Two other workers, including the hotel’s manager, are still in custody.
A 55-year-old Eritrean businessman, Twelde Brehan, was found hanging dead in his hotel room with his feet touching the ground on Friday last week. The police then arrested the manager and several staff members of the hotel to help with investigations.
Captian Guot Guot Akol, the Northern Bahr el Ghazal State police spokesperson, told Radio Tamazuj Wednesday that preliminary investigations are ongoing to ascertain the circumstances leading to the death of the foreign businessman.
“What we are doing is a preliminary investigation because the case is still under section (59) of the South Sudan Criminal Procedures Act 2008. It appeared like a suicide but it is now the role of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to give us a full report on the nature of the suicide,” he said. “Also, a postmortem report will help the police. If it is concluded to be a pure or natural suicide, then the public will be notified. Let us give the investigators and crime officers to collect the evidence and they will let us know what their findings are.”
Capt. Guot said that the police initially detained five people to help with investigations but that three had been released.
“Up to now we have not placed any suspicion or direct accusation towards them and we were just asking them to tell us whether they know about the case and what information they may give is useful for the police to develop the investigations,” he said. “The hotel manager and a receptionist are still with us.”
The state’s information minister, William Anyuon Kuol, said he was aware of the case but could not comment because it is still being investigated by the police.