The High Court sitting in Aweil, Northern Bahr el Ghazal State, during its second hearing of a case in which a girl was defiled and murdered, on Tuesday heard from seven eyewitnesses amid protests from the defense.

On 3 May, a Sudanese trader in Aweil, Saber Abdalla Abusam, defiled, murdered, and disposed of the body of a six-year-old Abuk Lual Lual in the Ayuang residential area. The accused was arrested and jointly charged with two of his colleagues Omer Mohamud Omer and Hamad Hassan who attempted to conceal the crime.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj shortly after the second court session, the mother of the deceased, Awek Yuot Yuot, said she asked the court to hang the killer of her daughter.

“As the mother, I talked a lot in the courtroom, and in my final statement I said Mr. Saber Abdalla who killed my child must be hanged here in Aweil because he raped, killed, and threw my child in a pit latrine,” said Yuot. “If he is referred to another place, I will commit suicide.”

Madut Santino Deng, one of the lawyers representing the bereaved family, said their seven witnesses provided the information needed in determining the case, saying that the primary accused is accountable for the child’s demise.  

“The good thing was that we have finished hearing from all eyewitnesses, including the mother of the deceased and the sister, as main eyewitnesses and that means we have presented every evidence that the accused man has committed the crime,” Deng said.

Advocate Issac Deng Athian, the defense lawyer of the accused, said every eyewitness tells the court their version of events but that the court will rule on facts.

“Every witness will say what he or she knows about the case but there is nothing we can comment on now because all the statements are left in the court record and it is all those statements that will be filed up to either make something or nothing,” said Deng.

“Until that day comes, when the court will make something out of it or nothing out of it, that is when we will say the witnesses said facts or lies,” he added.

The next court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.