Citizens in Paloich County in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State have accused police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department of abuse of power and accepting a bribes from suspects.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, several residents said police recently detained ten pastoralists suspected of a crime but only released them after accepting ten goats from the herders, although the accused were pardoned by the complainant.
The residents also accused the police officers of accepting bribes from several defendants in separate cases. In once instance, a trader was killed in his shop in November, but suspects were released after paying bribes to the police, an eyewitness to the killing said.
“They arrested one of the suspects who identified the names of the other six suspects,” the witness said. “One of them managed to escape. Those killers were released after paying 1,000 each, but those who didn’t have money are still in detention.”
Another citizen accused the police of failing to arrest a perpetrator who shot a citizen in a church.
The head of the CID in Paloich who is a rank of major general did not answer Radio Tamazuj’s calls to his phone.
The complaining citizens called upon the relevant authorities to investigate senior police officers in the area.