South Sudan’s main opposition group SPLM-IO is calling on the government to prosecute all those involved in the kidnapping and killing of Dong Samuel Luak, a prominent South Sudanese lawyer and human rights activist and Aggrey Ezbon Idri a member of the opposition SPLM-IO.

Opposition chief Riek Machar condemned the act in the strongest terms saying it is barbaric.

According to a UN Experts report released on April 30, the two men were killed on January 30, 2017, a few days after they were kidnapped by the South Sudan National Security on 27 January 2017 with the help of the South Sudanese Embassy in Nairobi.

Machar said in a statement seen by Radio Tamazuj that all those who participated including those who kidnapped Dong and Aggrey, government officials at the South Sudanese embassy in Kenya and Kenyan collaborators must be brought to book.

The opposition leader further said they will pursue all necessary legal avenues to achieve justice.

“SPLM/A-IO calls upon the UN Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute those involved in this crime. The SPLM/A-IO is also taking this case to the Court of Justice of the African Union. The SPLM/A-IO reiterates its call to the AU for the immediate establishment of the Hybrid Court of South Sudan,” partly reads the statement.

While conveying his condolences to the families, Machar described the men as “heroes whose lives were taken by a brutal regime”.