JUBA, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) — The trial of South Sudan’s suspended First Vice President Riek Machar and seven co-accused on charges of treason, murder, and crimes against humanity began in Juba, the country’s capital, on Monday.
The opposition leader, alongside other members of his party, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, who appeared before a special court, challenged the court’s legal authority and composition of the three-judge panel.
Geri Raimondo Legge, Machar’s lawyer, told the court that the criminal proceedings against Machar are unconstitutional while the first vice president is still in office, stressing that the president of the Supreme Court lacks the jurisdiction and competence to constitute a special court to try these cases.
The trial, broadcast nationally for three hours, was conducted amid heavy security deployment outside the court, and along major streets in the capital, which brought business to a standstill.
Ajo Ony’Ohisa Igele, a member of the prosecution team, argued that the local court has the competence to try Machar and his co-accused, adding that the revitalized peace agreement is not supreme over the national laws of South Sudan.
The trial was adjourned to Tuesday due to disagreements between defense lawyers and prosecutors over procedural matters.
Machar was placed under house arrest in late March following a deadly attack on an army base in Nasir County, Upper Nile State, by the White Army militia, allegedly linked to the opposition force that Machar leads. The attack left more than 250 South Sudan People’s Defence Forces soldiers killed.
South Sudan, which became independent in 2011, signed the 2018 peace deal that ended a civil war between forces loyal to South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit and those of Machar, a conflict that claimed nearly 400,000 lives. Relations between the two leaders, who have dominated South Sudanese politics for decades, remain strained.
