South Sudan President Salva Kiir is considering, as a New Year ‘gift’, an amnesty for several inmates imprisoned for various offenses across the nation, a senior official said.
While addressing inmates at Juba Central Prison, Vice President, James Wani Igga said the president’s national dialogue initiative is a program designed to bring real peace in the country.
He explained that the peace ‘vehicle’, embedded in the president’s national dialogue initiative, will also cover prison inmates.
“If you are released from here and you go and commit the same mistake that you brought here in the first place, then it will be unfortunate and you will face your own crime under law without further help,” stressed Igga, amidst cheers from the various inmates.
The Vice-President, formerly a speaker of the country’s Parliament, vowed to meet the President and First Vice-President General Taban Deng Gai to reach a decision regarding the prisoners’ complaints.
Igga said although the inmates have been convicted for different offences, others have been convicted due to ‘rumour’ and ‘ear say’.
“Others [inmates] may have committed a crime without knowing and others may have been brought here by other powerful forces, but all in all, we are reaching out to all the people of South Sudan to embrace peace and close dark chapters of our country’s history and to start the New Year 2017 as the year of peace,” he added,
The Vice-President shared some light moments and shook hands with former senior officials from the President’s Office, who were convicted in June and are now serving life imprisonment at Juba Central prison.
Speaking during the same occasion, a prisoner, only identified as Kaunda, highlighted some of the challenges facing his colleagues and faulted the country’s judiciary mismanaging cases.
“There are people remanded for more than 10 years because the complainants have either forgotten they arrested somebody or no longer interested in the case, but police investigators and prosecutors are still holding such people in prison here,” he stressed.
He complained about cases before the Court of Appeal; the nation’s second highest court, saying it does not work in public interest.
“People wait for their appeal result between five to 10 years for a case to be concluded. The common jargon in the appeal court is that the first opinion is finished and from there you will never hear of the second and third opinion anymore,” Kaunda said on Tuesday.
“Lawyers and family will also forget you in the process of this long wait,” he added.
The Director of Juba prison, Brigadier General, Michael Malou Makuach told the inmates that their complaints would be forwarded to relevant authorities and encouraged the inmates to support the President’s dialogue initiative.
