Juba`s First Grade County Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of a defamation case filed by the Minister of General Education and Instruction Awut Deng Achuil to June.
This comes after the police Investigator who is presenting the case did not show up in court to present the prosecution’s case on Monday.
First Grade County Court Judge Lual Cuei who is presiding over the case then adjourned the hearing for 4 June as the session could not proceed in the absence of the Investigator.
In October last year, the Supreme Court of South Sudan referred the case filed by Minister Awut against three youths representing the Luanjang Community of Tonj East County in Warrap State back to the Juba County Court.
In February 2021, a group of youths from the Luanjang Community represented by Marcelo Deng Magon, who was the interim youth chairperson at the time, wrote a letter to President Salva Kiir accusing Minister Awut of intentionally barring primary eight pupils from areas of Warrap State’s Tonj East County from sitting the 2021 Primary Leaving Examinations under the pretext of insecurity.
The general education minister then filed a lawsuit against Machiek Dongrin, Marcelo Deng Magon, the interim chairman of Luangjang Youth Union, and Tinjok Ruben Dhal, a medical student from Bahr el Ghazal University, in February 2022 in a Juba court.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj after the adjournment of the case, the lawyer of the accused three, Advocate Kiir Chol, said the session could not proceed because a brother to the investigator was killed and he could not be present in court.
“Today was supposed to be the continuation of the hearing of the police investigator but unfortunately he did not show up because his brother has been killed at home so the case has been adjourned up to 4t June,” he said.
Advocate Chol had initially requested the court to grant a one-month suspension of the hearing to give room for his client to attend lectures, a request that was rejected.
“I asked the court to give us one month but the other party insisted that it should be within 10 days, later on, we agreed on 4 June when we will continue hearing the investigator,” he explained. “We have been telling the judge to give one of the suspects, a student at Bahr el Ghazal University, to go for classes but the court did not agree with us.”