Ensure Due Process, Fair Trials for Dr Riek and others

[John Ashworth]

South Sudan: Ensure Due Process, Fair Trials of Opposition

Justice Minister Indicts Riek Machar, Others After 6 Months of
Arbitrary Detention

Human Rights Watch
September 15, 2025

(Nairobi) – South Sudanese authorities should uphold due process for
the opposition leader and First Vice President Riek Machar, other
opposition members, and affiliates facing charges, and ensure prompt,
fair, and public trials that meet international standards, Human
Rights Watch said today. If due process and fair trials are not
guaranteed, the detainees should be released unconditionally.

On March 26, 2025, South Sudan’s government placed Machar under house
arrest. This followed arrests led by the National Security Service
(NSS) and Military Intelligence of at least two dozen political and
military members and affiliates of Machar’s party, the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO). On September 11, the justice
minister announced that 21 individuals—8 of whom were under arrest,
including Machar—were charged with serious crimes including murder,
treason, and crimes against humanity.

“For six months, the South Sudanese authorities have confined key
opposition leader Riek Machar without any legal basis and held him and
other opposition figures incommunicado,” said Nyagoah Tut Pur, South
Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Bringing serious charges
after arbitrarily detaining and silencing opposition voices does not
build confidence that detainees will receive impartial public hearings
that fully respect their right to a fair trial.”

On March 26, heavily armed security forces surrounded Machar’s
residence in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, confined him to part of his
residence, and held him incommunicado. Sources told Human Rights Watch
that security forces in armored personnel carriers have been guarding
all roads leading to Machar’s residence.

Machar’s house arrest followed weeks of violence between armed youth
known as the White Army and government forces in Nasir, Upper Nile
state, a Machar stronghold. On March 4, the White Army attacked a
government military base and Nasir town and on March 7, armed men
attacked a United Nations helicopter, killing a crew member, which the
UN said may constitute a war crime.

At a March 28 news conference, the information minister said that
Machar was arrested for “encouraging his forces to rebel” and that the
restrictions were “pending investigations.”

Fighting between government forces and its allied militias and the
White Army, SPLA-IO, and other armed groups has continued to escalate,
with the government bombarding populated areas, which Human Rights
Watch found may amount to war crimes.

Since Machar’s detention, the government has denied requests for
access to Machar from embassies and the African Union, which have
called for his immediate and unconditional release. On September 11,
the justice minister warned international actors that judicial
proceedings could not be subject to “policy or diplomatic debate.”

On June 8, media reported that security service agents searched
Machar’s residence and confiscated the phones, laptop, and internet
modem of Machar’s wife, Interior Minister Angelina Teny, effectively
cutting her off from external communications, including her
ministerial duties. Teny had not left the residence since Machar’s
house arrest. Authorities should immediately return Teny’s devices,
allow her unfettered access to Machar, and ensure her safe and free
movement, Human Rights Watch said.

Credible sources said that at least three members of SPLA-IO—Puot Kang
Chol, the petroleum minister; Camilo Gatmai Kel, Machar’s office
manager; and Mam Pal Dhuor, an SPLA-IO affiliate—were held
incommunicado at the Blue House, the security service headquarters,
since their arrest in early March, until the charges were announced.
The sources also say that at least two detainees, Chol and Gatmai,
were held in solitary confinement for at least three months.

Gatwech Lam Puoch, an SPLA-IO member of parliament for Nasir county,
Upper Nile state, was arrested near his home and detained at the Blue
House since March 12 without access to family or lawyers until
September 11 and 13 respectively. He had called for the suspension of
government military deployment to Nasir and Ulang until local
communities were consulted. In August, parliament lifted Puoch’s
immunity at the request of the then-justice minister, apparently to
clear the way for him to stand trial.

Military Intelligence also continues to detain the SPLA-IO chief of
staff, Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, two opposition officials told Human
Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented abusive detention
practices by both the NSS and Military Intelligence, including
torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearance.

On September 11, the justice minister announced the “conclusion of
investigations into the Nasir incident March 3-7” and that 83 suspects
were interrogated, 21 were indicted, 8 were under arrest and charged,
76 were discharged for lack of evidence, and 13 remained at large.
Those charged include Machar, Chol, Duop Lam, Dhuor, Puoch, Gatmai,
Mading Riek Yak, and Dominic Gatgok Riak. They are charged with
murder, treason, conspiracy and common intention, destruction of
public property and military assets, terrorism financing, and crimes
against humanity. President Salva Kiir simultaneously suspended Machar
as first vice president and Chol as petroleum minister.

Authorities should end the incommunicado detentions of other SPLA-IO
members and affiliates, including Deputy Governor Isaiah Akhol and
Animal Resources Minister Samuel Gai Magok, whom the security service
arrested in March in Lakes state after they criticized aerial
bombardments in Upper Nile; Marko Peter Achor, security adviser for
Western Bar El Ghazal state, and James Ernest Makuei, Jur River county
commissioner, whom security services transferred from their facility
in Wau to the Blue House in early March.

Authorities should also grant independent domestic and international
monitors access to all detainees to assess their condition and
treatment, and the courts should urgently review the detentions and
treatment of the detainees, including how investigations were
conducted, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch has previously documented how charges of crimes
against the state have been used to repress dissent and how
prosecutions and trials of those facing such charges are marred by
human rights abuses and political interference.

The serious charges brought against Machar and his affiliates come at
a time when the South Sudanese government is resisting establishing
the African Union Hybrid Court, which would investigate and prosecute
all those responsible for serious crimes since 2013, including in the
context of violence in 2025. This demonstrates a selective justice
approach that targets political rivals rather than those most
responsible for serious abuses from all sides, Human Rights Watch
said.

The Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the African Union
Peace and Security Council, and the UN Security Council should press
South Sudan to accord Machar and other detainees full due process
rights, including effective and confidential access to their lawyers
and access to their assets to enable their defense. They should ensure
fair trials accessible to the public, media, and trial monitors in
line with international standards or immediately and unconditionally
release the detainees.

“The unraveling of South Sudan’s peace deal has been accompanied by
serious rights abuses and the erosion of the rule of law,” Pur said.
“South Sudan’s neighbors and other concerned governments should ensure
courts are not weaponized against rivals and use their leverage to
press for tangible progress that protects rights.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/15/south-sudan-ensure-due-process-fair-trials-of-opposition

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John Ashworth

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