A Juba High Court on Friday granted bail to activist and government critic Morris Mabior Awikjok Bak who is facing charges of defamation before a Juba County Court and being held at the detention centre of the National Security Service (NSS).
Last month, the presiding First Grade Magistrate rejected a bail application for the activist who has been in detention for about 18 months.
Mabior, a former refugee in Kenya, was abducted on February 4, 2023, in Nairobi and returned to South Sudan where he has since been detained by NSS officials, who refused to acknowledge that they were holding him until he was suddenly produced in court in April this year.
The activist is battling a defamation case in court brought by the Director General of the Internal Security Bureau of the National Security Service, Gen. Akol Koor Kuc.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj this afternoon, Senior Advocate Kiir Chol Deng, representing the accused in court said the High Court Judge Francis Amum has quashed the County Court decision and ordered the release of the accused on bail.
“Last time during the trial we applied to have the accused released on bail but the presiding judge refused so we appealed against that decision to the High Court and the court now agrees with us that the accused is entitled to be bailed out because the offence upon which he is being tried is a bailable offence and he should not be jailed for 21 months,” Chol said.
The defense lawyer revealed that his client is facing two cases of defamation which are filed by the Internal Security Bureau (ISB) and another case of offence against the state.
“There are two cases, the one we are talking about is defamation and that defamation case was filed by an individual that is Gen. Akol Koor so here we are talking about defamation now the accused is going to be released on this case. The accused is also being detained by the National Security Services on the allegation that he committed some offences against the state and that case is now in the Supreme Court,” Chol explained.
“If the NSS fails to release my client then it will be a contempt of court. We will bring legal action against whoever refuses to implement the court order,” he concluded.