Abraham Chol’s case adjourned after co-accused fail to show up
The hearing of the case of the self-proclaimed prophet Abraham Chol has been adjourned till October 5, 2022, by high court.
Deng John Deng, a representative of defence advocates, said the court proceedings were adjourned due to the absence of two suspects who were earlier released on bail.
“The hearing for the case has been postponed due to the non-attendance of the two 2 accused. The court was adjourned until October 5 so that these two could attend,” Deng stated.
The five accused in case number 3536 of 2021 are Prophet Abraham Chol, Samuel Mayen, Daniel Malith, David Chan, and James Garang charged under articles 201, 202, 75, 76, and 48 of South Sudan Penal Code 2008.
In February 2022, a member of parliament representative Twic East County from which the prophet hails, David de Dau, apologised to President Salva Kiir on behalf of Abraham Chol and urged the president to order the release of the self-proclaimed prophet of Cush International
“Your Excellency, on behalf of my constituency and particularly Prophet Abraham Chol, who has been at the National Maximum Prison for the last seven (7) months without trial, I would like to apologise for any inconveniences that might have been caused by the declarations and utterances made by the person in the subject matter,” Dau stated.
The lawmaker claimed that Chol who belongs to his constituency had been arrested, detained and denied a fair trial.
“The constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, Article 12 on the issue of Personal Liberty states that ‘every person has the right to liberty and security of person, no person shall be subjected to arrest, detention, deprivation or restriction of his or her liberty except for specified reasons and in accordance with procedures prescribed by law,” the lawmaker continued.
“I quoted the above provision of the constitution in regards to the arrest, detention, and the denial of a fair trial of a member of my constituency, Twic East County, Jonglei State, in the name of Prophet Abraham Chol Maketh, who was arrested on July 8, 2021, at 10:00 pm at his residential house in Jebel area,” he said.
He added that the prophet was also denied the right to know the reasons for his arrest.
“Prophet Abraham Chol was acting within the practice of his religious right as per article 23(d) of the constitution that states ‘the right to write, issue and disseminate religious publications, I am therefore appealing to your kind office to reconsider the release of Prophet Abraham Chol on the fact that he was acting on his religious rights and that what was claimed on the social media and public did not happen as reported,” Dau reiterated.
