The South Sudan special court set up for the high-profile treason case in Juba has requested Gen. Aleu Ayieny Aleu, the Minister of Interior, to appear before the court as a witness.

A judge of the court went so far as to say that the minister will be potentially arrested if he fails to appear. The minister was summoned last week for testimony but failed to turn up.

This has followed on the request of lead prosecutor James Mayen, on whose request the court in its last hearing summoned four witnesses including the interior minister, but none yet appeared in the court.

Another of the prosecution’s key witnesses, Mac Paul, the SPLA director of military intelligence, surprised court observers last week when he said that he had no evidence linking the defendants to any attempted military coup, which is the charge of the government.

Pag’an Amum, the ousted SPLM secretary-general, faces charges of treason alongside three former top government officials, Ezekiel Gatkuoth, Majak d’Agoot and Oyai Deng. They pleaded innocent to the charges.

In a hearing today lasting about an hour, the judge said, “The Minister of Interior was summoned several times as a witness but failed to turn up, therefore we the court summon him today for the session fixed tomorrow; if he fails to turn up the court will arrest him.”

The court suggested that the last chance for the four summoned witnesses to appear may be Friday this week, 4 April.

“Until now the four witnesses’ whereabouts is not known, and we are searching for the four witnesses by their head of their division, and for the Minister of Interior Aleu Ayieny Aleu who is engaged in some security issues that are affecting the country,” said James Mayen, lead prosecutor.

He suggested the minister will be ready by Thursday. “Therefore I requested the honorable court to adjourn the court hearing to Friday for the four witnesses, and if they are not brought we will cancel it,” Mayen added.

For his part, the defense lawyer Monyluak Alor said the lead prosecutor has proven to have very loose control over the prosecution witnesses.

“If you go back through the records, you may find that the lead prosecutor has failed to bring the Minister of Interior as their witness on two earlier occasions. And also the prosecution fails to bring the two prosecution witnesses from the military intelligence, citing unfounded justification that the head of the MI was outside country on a mission,” said Monyluak 

The lawyer emphasized that the four accused persons have a constitutional right to speedy and fair trial. “We the defense team request for fair and speedy trial and appeal to the honorable court to reject the request made by the lead prosecutor and continue with the trial,” he said.

Monyluak further argued that owing to the prosecution’s lack of seriousness with court procedures, the trial should be discontinued for procedural deficiencies.

File photo: South Sudan Interior Minister Aleu Ayeny Aleu (in hat, left) (Radio Tamazuj)