Two committees of South Sudan’s national parliament produced a joint report on the National Security Service bill on Wednesday, detailing changes they recommended to the text after earlier debate.
The report by the Committee of Defense, Security and Public Order and the Legislation and Justice Committee recommended passing the bill to its final reading, which happened Wednesday.
Samuel Duwar Deng, the chairman of the parliament’s security committee, authored the document, which details some amendments made to the bill between its third and final readings.
Many of the key features of the original text were retained.
Duwar’s report makes clear that the powers of the service to arrest without warrant should be preserved in the final version of the bill, but clarifies that these powers should only be exercised for “offenses against the state,” not ordinary crimes.
However, accompanying this clause is another clause (51.2) that the committees insert to the text saying that any person arrested in such a manner should be brought before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.
Other changes are fairly minor. For example, a section was added to the text, now article 17, establishing a legal department within NSS, in part to deal with internal and external complains.