Aweil chamber of commerce boss exits jail on trumped up charges
By Hou Akot Hou
The Chairperson of the Chamber of Commerce in Aweil town was on Tuesday released after spending one year and half years in jail on trumped up political charges.
Deng Makol Athian, was released jail with more than 100 inmates.
“I am happy to be out though my business is totally destroyed, if I want to start I will begin from nowhere. They disconnected me from my clients I was having online buyers and NGOs that were having business with me,” Athian told Juba Echo in an interview.
He said he was never arraigned in court due to lack of evidence by the state.
A source privy to the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the freed inmates were accused of belonging to opposition hold-out groups that refused to sign the 2018 revitalized peace agreement.
One of the freed inmates, Garang Dut said he was targeted for criticizing excesses of the Northern Bahr El Ghazal state government.
“South Sudan’s transitional constitution states that random arrests and detentions are prohibited, and any person arrested has to be produced in court of law after 24 hour period,” Dut said.
