Lawyers’ meeting in Wau halted by security personnel

Security personnel in Wau halted a meeting of the South Sudan Bar Association on Monday as a crackdown on the organization spread beyond the national capital Juba.

Security personnel in Wau halted a meeting of the South Sudan Bar Association on Monday as a crackdown on the organization spread beyond the national capital Juba.

In Juba, security personnel arrived at a meeting of the lawyers’ association as they were voting for leadership positions on Monday and ordered the poll to be halted.

The lawyers in Wau today were voting in the same national association election at a polling center set up in the city to serve the states of the Bahr al Ghazal region, so that lawyers from this region would not have to travel all the way to Juba to vote in the election.

Jacob Wol, a lawyer in Wau, told Radio Tamazuj that security personnel of the National Security Service halted the election today.

“Up to now the security have not told us to call off the process completely but they said that we should get a document first,” he explained. The lawyer said they are waiting for permission to proceed with their election. 

File photo: National Security Service headquarters in Juba