The Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Court made a decision on Wednesday to suspend the ongoing court hearing concerning Mary Akuot Agany, a minor who suffered intentional blindness at the hands of her father in Abiook village, Tonj South County, Warrap State.
Agany Kut Achuil stands accused of taking his daughter to a forest on April 2nd, where he pricked her eyes as a form of punishment for what he perceived as wayward behaviour. Allegedly, she had associated with undesirable peers, eloped at the age of 13, and brought shame to the family.
In a surprising turn of events, the defense team filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal, requesting two significant changes: the use of the Dinka Reek language in court proceedings and a change in the location of the trial to Tonj South.
Ukongo Benson Athia, a member of the defense team, spoke to Radio Tamazuj at the GBV Court premises in Juba on Wednesday. He explained the reasons behind their appeal, stating, “The session of today was supposed to hear the second prosecution witness, which is the investigator from Juba, to read the statements that he collected from the parties, the accused, and the victim. However, we have made an appeal, and the court trying the case was asked by the appeal court to produce the file. So the file is now before the Court of Appeal, and we don’t know when it will be out.”
He went on to elaborate on the grounds for their appeal, saying, “We made an appeal on three grounds, mainly the issue of language and that we need a translator who could translate the language used in court into Dinka Reek. This application was rejected and dismissed by the trial court. We then made an application for bail, and it was rejected too. Lastly, we made an application for the determination of the jurisdiction of the court. In this application, we wanted the Court of Appeal to determine where the court is supposed to sit when trying the case. This application was also rejected.”
Benson continued to explain the significance of these appeals, saying, “So we made the appeal on three grounds: one is language – which is a constitutional right of the accused person to be given a translation in a language he or she can understand better. The second appeal is the right of the accused to bail. We could not understand the reasons why our application for bail was rejected by the trial court. We feel that a trial court can rightly take place in the High Court in Tonj South. We hope that the whole GBV Court can move to Tonj South, where the trial can take place.”
As of now, the trial remains suspended, awaiting the decision of the Court of Appeal on the defense’s application. The outcome of this appeal will determine the future course of the case, including the language used in court and the trial’s location.