Vice President Machar of South Sudan is on trial for treason

Under strict security in the capital city of Juba, the treason trial of Riek Machar, the suspended first vice president of South Sudan, began Monday. His attorney has argued that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear the case.

Fears of a resumption of the deadly civil war that raged between his ethnic Nuer forces and Dinka militants loyal to his longstanding opponent President Salva Kiir from 2013 to 2018 have been stoked by Machar’s incarceration under house arrest since March.

The charges of murder, treason, and crimes against humanity against Machar and 20 other people for allegedly participating in raids by the Nuer-dominated White Army militia in the northeast earlier this year are rejected by Machar’s SPLM-IO party.

Machar made his first public appearance since his house detention at the special court, wearing a dark suit and a cobalt blue tie behind a row of black bars.

When the charges were made public earlier this month, Kiir suspended him by order. Only the state broadcaster has media access to the court, which was located in an event area that is frequently used for weddings and concerts.

According to Macar’s attorney, the case is unconstitutional.

The court was declared “unconstitutional, unlawful, illegal and void” by Machar’s attorney, Geri Raimondo Legge, who contended that Machar was still entitled to the immunity of a serving vice president.

The petroleum minister was among seven of Machar’s supporters who were charged with him earlier this month.

“(We pray the court) order the immediate discharge of His Excellency Dr Riek Machar Teny, the first vice president of the republic of South Sudan, and the seven accused persons for being arrested and detained unconstitutionally,” Legge told the judge.

The defense’s arguments, according to prosecutor Ajo Ony’Ohisa Igele, are “unfounded and weak.”

Machar is accused by the government of aiding the White Army, an ethnic militia made up primarily of Nuer teenagers, during battles with the army in March in the town of Nasir in the northeast. More than 80,000 people were displaced, and dozens of civilians were killed.

As part of a peace agreement that put an end to the civil war, Kiir and Machar, both in their 70s, worked in a tenuous unity government. Machar, a former head of a bush rebel group, and Kiir have had a tumultuous relationship for over thirty years.