Authorities in South Sudan’s Northern Bahr el Ghazal State said the death row convict, who defiled and killed a five-year-old girl in the state has been transferred from Aweil to Wau Person.

Last month, the Hight Court in Aweil sentenced Sabir Abu Sam, a Sudanese national, to death by hanging for raping and killing five-year-old Abuk Lual.

The court also convicted his associate, Omer Mohamed Omer, to five years in jail for harbouring the rape perpetrator while he was on the run.

Both convicts were granted 15 days to appeal against the court ruling. However, the deadline for the appeal will elapse on Wednesday this week and the convicts are yet to submit an appeal.

Deng Majak, head of the state legal administration, said the transfer of Mr Saber to Wau is in line with imprisonment systems in South Sudan’s three regions.

“There are main prisons based on the three regions, all convicted persons in Bahr el Ghazal are taken to Wau Main Prison, Upper Nile convicts are transferred to Malakal Main Prison, and convicts from Equatoria are moved to Juba Main Prison. So the convicted persons wait for other procedures there,” Majak explained.

According to Majak, the Wau Main Prison will soon send the court papers to Chief Justice Chan Reec Madut in Juba who will forward them to the president for approval.

Madut Santino Deng, a member of the legal team that defended the deceased’s family, said they will be following up on the case to ensure that the court papers are taken to the president.

“As defending lawyers, we don’t have any problem because the government has many prisons and wherever Sabir Abdalla is transferred, we don’t have any problem,” Santino said.

Meanwhile, Isaac Deng Athian, the defense lawyer for the two convicts confirmed that the first convict had been transferred to Wau and the other convict will serve his five-year jail term in Aweil prison.

 “The convicts didn’t appeal, they did nothing about this and no one has contacted me about their interest to appeal. And also I was providing legal aid at the cost of the Ministry of Justice and the ministry has not appointed me for the second time so that I could appeal for them,  so my task ended with the original case,” he concluded.