US court dismisses Terrain Hotel case brought against South Sudan

WASHINGTON, MAY 11, 2023 (SUDANS POST) – The American District Court of Columbia has dismissed a case filed against South Sudan by international aid workers who were assaulted by army soldiers during the 2016 fighting in the capital Juba.

The case was filed in the US court in 2021. It stems from the July 11, 2016 attack in Juba in which members of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (then Sudan People’s Liberation Army) broke into Terrain Hotel to rape aid workers and kill others including a journalist.

Hotel managers said at the time that the property of the hotel was damaged, and was later awarded $2.2 million by a military court.

The victims in the 2021 lawsuits were seeking at least $123 million in compensation.

But in a ruling this week, the US District Court of Columbia dismissed the case, concurring with South Sudan’s government defense team that it was immune from any suit filed against it in the US under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

“Defendants have filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ (international aid workers) complaint for lack of subject matter and personal jurisdiction, contending that South Sudan and its political subdivisions are immune to suit in the US under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA),” said the ruling by Judge Rudolph Contreras.

“For the reasons detailed below, the Court grants the defendants’ (South Sudan Government) motion to dismiss,” it added.

A join South Sudan government-United Nations investigation committee also concluded that it was South Sudan government soldiers, who had committed the attack against the hotel, and the international aid workers and in 20

A South Sudan army court convicted 10 soldiers, awarded 4,000 USD to each assault victim and 51 cows to the family of journalist John Gatluak Manguet.

They contended that the compensation was not commensurate with the crimes, and the physical and mental trauma they have endured since the attack.

The convicted soldiers also filed their intention to appeal the conviction, according to Human Rights Watch, but a missing case file blocked appeals in the murder and sexual assault case stemming from the attack on the hotel.

The case file has not been seen since it was sent to President Salva Kiir in 2018, the rights advocacy group said in 2019.