The two directors of the National Security Service, External Affairs Director Thomas Duoth and Internal Affairs Director Akol Koor have failed to appeal before a high court in Juba today in spite of a court summons.

High Court Judge Lado Armeno on Tuesday summoned the pair to testify as witnesses in a case involving the prosecution of several former presidency staff accused of embezzlement.

Lado accepted the request made by defense lawyers of the 16 accused persons demanding the two directors of the National Security Service and the head of security at Juba airport Carmelo and Mabior Achuey of the Central Bank of South Sudan appear before the court.

The defense have accused Thomas Duoth, in his capacity as the director general of national security for internal affairs, to have involved himself in the case and ordered the arrest of the Mayen Wol, John Agou and other accused persons based on an intelligence report he received against them.

Duoth and his partner Akol Koor failed to show up at the sitting on Thursday. They instead sent their legal advisor to answer the the court summons.

Reacting to this, the high court judge has again summoned the National Security bosses to come next Monday, 23 May 2016.

Later in the sitting today, the court has listened to the two defense witnesses on their relation with accused person John Agou. The court also decided to give open chance to the accused persons if they have defense witnesses that they are free to come for testimony before the court in the coming sitting.  

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of Thomas Duoth.