2 SPLA-IO commanders sentenced to 7 years for torture

JUBA – Two senior Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) commanders in Ruweng Administrative Area have been sentenced to seven years in jail by a mobile court for torturing a 19-year old man in June, a senior government official there has said.

Ruweng director of information Miakol Makuach said in June that a man identified as Atem Mayiik Manyil was arrested and tortured in Agarak, an area in Ruweng controlled by the SPLA-IO, over a disappeared cell phone three weeks earlier.

He said Brigadier-General Alek Yai Guen, the commander of SPLA-IO in Agarak, had ordered Lieutenant Colonel Monykoang Miakol, a SPLA-IO officer, to arrest Atem, claiming he took a phone to make calls but did not return it.

Monykoang then reportedly arrested the 19-year-old man and detained him in a container, torturing him overnight and subsequently lost his arms.

Minister of information of Ruweng Administrative Area James Arop confirmed the two men have been sentenced to seven years in jail and will pay a fine of 24 cows to the victim.

“The verdict is already done. Those two soldiers, the Bridger General and the Lieutenant colonel were in prison for seven years each then there was also payment of 24 cows and I think it’s done customarily or customary law that is what they told me,” Arop said, according to Eye Radio.

SPLA-IO spokesman Col. Lam Paul Gabriel dismissed in an interview with Sudans Post, as baseless, the incident.

“This is a wild, negative and baseless accusation against the SPLA-IO. The SPLA-IO is a national movement that cannot be reduced to such criminal acts,” Colonel Lam Paul said at the time.

“Secondly the accusation shows complete lack of military chain of command; how can a Brig. Gen directs a Maj. Gen who is more senior than a Brigadier?” the senior opposition media official asked.

“The Ruweng Administration Area’s Information Director Miakol Makuach should find the right criminal and avoid tarnishing the image of the SPLA-IO to advance his political ambitions,” he concluded.