A special court in South Sudan ruled that it has a jurisdiction to prosecute vice -out vice president, Rick Maher and seven accused, who are important to kill, betrayal and crimes against humanity.
The court rejected all the objections made by the Machar Legal Team regarding its authority, the constitutionality of procedures, and the claim that it was fortified from the prosecution. The case will continue on Wednesday.
Machar rejected The charges against him two weeks ago As a “magical research” policy. They raised fears of returning to the civil war.
The accusations stem from an attack in March by a militia claiming to be linked to Machar, who killed 250 soldiers and public.
Since then, it was under the arrest of the house.
The Machar defense team argued that the alleged crimes should not be tried by a national court, but by a hybrid court under the African Union, according to the 2018 peace agreement that ended the five -year civil war between its forces and those loyal to President Salva Kiir.
However, the court argued that it had the authority of the experience of national crimes, as a hybrid court has not yet been established.
“The Judicial Guardian Court has the experience of this case in accordance with the 2011 transitional constitution,” Judge James, the judge James, spent Alala.
He also rejected the argument by the Machar team that he had a immunity of prosecution, adding that the ruling applies only to the president.
“The first vice president has no constitutional immunity, according to the transitional constitution,” the judge spent.
The court also expelled two Machar’s lawyer after the prosecution argued that they had no valid licenses.
The judge, who heads, spent that the two could only participate once their licenses are renewed.
The main lawyer at Machar Jerry Raymondo Legi Lopati told the court that his client and the joint continuous “have been subjected to the politicized media campaign” by the ministers and other senior officials.
“For the public, this behavior is up to the illegal and advance condemnation of our accused and a flagrant violation of the constitutional guarantee of the assumption of innocence … the accused is innocent until it is undoubtedly proven.”
The charges raised fears of the renewed conflict in the country, as it calls on the African Union, African countries and neighboring countries to calm in the latest country in the world, which only gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after decades of war.
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