{"id":15133,"date":"2014-04-25T08:50:23","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T08:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=15133"},"modified":"2014-04-25T09:13:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T09:13:01","slug":"south-sudan-drops-treason-case-against-four-plotters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=15133","title":{"rendered":"South Sudan drops treason case against four ‘plotters’"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Sudan is withdrawing the case against four top politicians accused of treason that triggered the civil war, the justice minister has said.<\/p>\n

The four, who include a former leader of the governing SPLM party, denied plotting a coup and also denied any links to the ongoing fighting.<\/p>\n

Their release had been a key demand of the rebels.<\/p>\n

Some one million people have been forced from their homes since fighting broke out in December 2013.<\/p>\n

Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla said that the case was being dropped in the interest of peace and reconciliation. He said that the four would probably be released by Friday.<\/p>\n

Separately on Thursday, the UN Security Council threatened sanctions against those responsible for continued deadly violence in South Sudan.<\/p>\n

In a strongly worded statement, council members expressed “horror and anger” over the mass killings of hundreds of civilians in the town of Bentiu, capital of the oil-rich Unity State, last week.<\/p>\n

‘Significant step’<\/strong><\/p>\n

The charges against the four politicians carried the maximum sentence of death and related to an alleged coup attempt on 15 December.<\/p>\n

South Sudan analyst James Copnall says this is a very significant step, because the trial was seen as a stumbling block to the peace talks in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n

In addition to former Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) secretary general Pagan Amum, ex-National Security Minister Oyai Deng Ajak was cleared, as were former Defence Minister Majak D’Agoot and former ambassador to the US Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth.<\/p>\n

In addition to the treason charge, they were accused of inciting the army and fuelling an insurgency in South Sudan, the world’s newest state which became independent in 2011.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Thursday, South Sudan President Salva Kiir sacked the head of the army following recent rebel advances. No reason was given for the dismissal of Gen James Hoth Mai.<\/p>\n

Conflict first broke out in the capital, Juba, between troops loyal to Mr Kiir and those allied with his sacked deputy, Riek Machar.<\/p>\n

It later spread to other parts of South Sudan, with numerous reports of ethnic killings.<\/p>\n

\"_74422608_reuters\"<\/a>
Many residents of Bentiu have fled the oil town since the rebels took over<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The UN says civilians were attacked in a church, hospital and an abandoned World Food Programme office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eleven ex-officials were arrested in December, but seven of them were later released.<\/p>\n

The two sides signed a ceasefire agreement on 23 January, but sporadic fighting has continued.<\/p>\n

The latest move comes amid worsening violence in South Sudan, with both sides implicated in atrocities and war crimes.<\/p>\n

Last week, the United Nations accused the rebels of massacring hundreds of civilians who sought refuge in a church, mosque and hospital, after capturing Bentiu.<\/p>\n

The rebels, however, blame the retreating government forces for the killings.<\/p>\n

The UN Security Council expressed on Thursday its “readiness to consider appropriate measures against those responsible”, which could mean sanctions.<\/p>\n

It also said it was gravely concerned by the growing humanitarian crisis in a UN camp in Bentiu, where more than 23,000 people are seeking shelter.<\/p>\n

Correspondents say the Bentiu killings are among the most shocking since the conflict began.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Credit: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Sudan is withdrawing the case against four top politicians accused of treason that triggered the civil war, the justice minister has said. The four, who include a former leader of the governing SPLM party, denied plotting a coup and also denied any links to the ongoing fighting. Their release had been a key demand […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-15133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}