Peter Biar says he was blacklisted following his release, not safe in Kenya
Peter Biar Ajak, the South Sudan country director for the London School of Economics’ International Growth Centre based in Britain, arrives at the courtroom in Juba, South Sudan March 21, 2019. (Photo credit: REUTERS)
June 12, 2020 (SSNN) – South Sudan economist and civil rights activist, Peter Biar Ajak, who was detained by the notorious national security service in South Sudan, has said that he was blacklisted following his release from detention this year.
Biar was arrested in mid 2018 at Juba International Airport while boarding a plane for a Red Army function in the Northern Bahr el-Ghazal state’s capital Aweil where he was invited for speech at that function.
On June 11, 2019 Biar who insisted on innocence was sentenced to two years for what a Juba court said was the national security threat he posed towards the country.
In an update today, Biar said he was blacklisted by the national security following his release and all, but one, of his belongings including an iphone and a laptop, has not been returned to him following his release.
“Following my release on 4 January 2020, I immediately applied through my domestic lawyers and family connections for the NSS to return my belongings. The NSS had refused following my sentencing to return my belongings. So, after my release, we asked that these things be returned. They included a laptop; an iphone; a passport; clothing; books; and a wallet containing my South Sudan Driver’s License, Cambridge University’s Student ID card, bank cards, and cash among others. After more than a month of follow-up, the authorities only returned my passport,” Biar said in the update seen by South Sudan News Now.
He said no “explanation has been provided about the whereabouts of other items.”
Ajak said he had to initiate contacts with the national security service and prominent individuals to negotiate his removal which indeed happened lately and immediately left the country.
“As I prepared to leave South Sudan to visit my children in Kenya and seek a much-needed medical attention, I discovered that I had been placed by the NSS on a ‘blacklist.’ Through the intervention of relatives and key contacts, I was finally removed from the list in early February,” he said.
“I left the country soon after and have been resting at home with family in Nairobi. I don’t particularly feel safe in Kenya, although I have not experienced any serious concern yet,” he further said.
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