The lawyer of Pan African Law Chamber, currently suing the South Sudan government at the East African Court of Justice over the detention of former Juba mayor Kalisto Ladu, said security personnel have harassed and intimidated him and asked him to drop the case.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj Tuesday afternoon, Lawyer Wani Santino Jada said two security agents with pistols came to his office in Juba on 24 April and asked him not to proceed with Kalisto’s case at the regional court.
He and his supporters use the rule of law to save 100,000s, millions of people in South Sudan from lead poisoning, starvation and injury. Interview with the most courageous, ambitious attorney in the world: Wani Santino Jada https://t.co/E4XRhQWBNJ pic.twitter.com/nK78ODXwQZ
— Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope (@hz_soh) June 8, 2020
“The two security officers with pistols came to my office on 24 April and asked to meet me. During our discussion, they told me that there were orders from above that I should refrain from pursuing the case, and I felt harassed and intimidated. I could also see their faces changed during our conversation on the issue,” he said.
“When I asked them if the order came from the Director General of the Internal Bureau of the National Security Service or his deputy, they said we are not here to discuss the issue; we are here just to inform you that you should back off from this case,” he added.
When asked if he fears for his security and life in Juba, Lawyer Wani said: “I don’t fear for my security, but my message to National Security is that let them be professional. Let them produce any person in their detention centre to competent courts based on our laws. The National Security’s job is to collect information, and the police is the only agency that should have powers of arrest.”
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South Sudan: Defense lawyer ‘intimidated’ over Kalisto’s case at regional court
