Top officials accused of misappropriation of 14 million USD and 30 thousand South Sudanese pounds in the Office of the President have denied the charges as baseless, claiming the accusations originate in personal difference in the workplace.
Defendants on Monday took the stand to testify, following weeks of hearings from prosecution witnesses and evidence.
“All these allegations made against me were baseless,” said Mayen Wol, former chief administrator at the presidency, speaking to the high court on Monday. “The auditor’s reports proved that there was no money got in my package or under my name.”
Mayan said that the prosecution documents presented by auditors to the court are ‘incomplete’ and biased. He said the prosecution opened the cases on the basis of an unconfirmed fabricated intelligence report from a junior officer called ‘Athorbei Gaddafi’.
“I would like to say something short about this case. The story of this case is between John Agou and his brother Athorbei Gaddafi who is an in-law to the president,” he said.
John Agou is one of the accused, a former security officer and administrative officer at the presidency, who was detained last year by National Security.
Mayen said Athorbei Gaddafi had a company before that supplied office stationary to the presidency from 2011 to 2013. But in 2013, Gaddafi was arrested by the National Security.
While Gaddafi was in prison, his brother John Agou established his own company that started also supplying office items to the Office of President, where Agou also found work.
Mayen recounted that by the time Gaddafi was released from the detention, he was not happy with his brother Agou for taking his job of supplying office items.
“Gaddafi did two things, first he wrote something on the Internet that there is 12 million USD amount stolen in the office of president and me (Mayen), Yel Luol and John Agou has taken the money,” he said.
Mayan said Gaddafi also went to Nairobi, Kenya where he made fabrications that he and others stole money, and he brought the intelligence report against them to Thomas Duoth, NSS Director General of External Security.
How I got arrested by National Security
Mayen said that Thomas Duoth later called him informing him that there is a problem, that he is under arrest, and should remain in his house. “I was told nobody should visit my house and was told also to return the government vehicle including my passport and later got arrested.”
He further told the court that the involvement of the National Security Service in the case shows that the charges are partial.
He pointed out that auditor general should have been the one to first investigate and brief the president on his findings, before the National Security can arrest them, but what happened instead was that there was no audit until after their arrest.
So far, Yel and John Agou have also already given their testimonies and they have accused ‘Gaddafi among other senior National Security officials’ of being behind their arrest.
The ongoing corruption trial in South Sudan’s capital Juba has offered a rare window into the workings of the presidency. The defendants including the former chief administrator and office director at the presidency were held since last year for months before being taken to trial. Efforts by family and top officials to broker a deal to avoid a trial failed.
File photo: The Juba high court where the case is being tried