S. Sudan opens Special Tribunal to try NSS operatives accused of human rights abuses
South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit (Photo: Supplied)
Dec 6th, 2019 (SSNN)-South Sudan’s government has announced the establishment of a Tribunal Court to try infamous National Security agents who have been accused of countless human rights violations, enforced disappearances and inhuman treatment since the conflict erupted in the country in 2013.
South Sudan’s National Security Service agents have been accused by several human rights organizations of committing heinous crimes in South Sudan.
In October 2014, the country’s lawmakers passed a National Security Bill that gives NSS agents broad powers to arrest, torture, or prosecute individuals believed to be opposed to the government of South Sudan.
However, the Bill was passed anyway despite the lack of a quorum required for voting members of parliament.
According to Article 53 of the National Security Service Bill, it is stated that National Security personnel – if found guilty of criminal offenses – must be tried by the Tribunal Court unless otherwise specified at the discretion of the Minister.
Last month, the rights advocacy group, Human Rights Watch condemned the National Security authorities for “spreading a climate of fear and terror, targeting critics and perceived dissidents with arbitrary arrest and detention and torture and other ill-treatment.”
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