• Urgent Action

Urgent Action Update: Fifteen Released, Five Still Arbitrarily Detained (South Sudan: UA 87.16)

October 19, 2017

George Livio Bahara, one of the men arbitrarily detained at a prison at the National Security Service (NSS) headquarters in Juba, was released on 25 May. Mike Tyson, another detainee, died on 29 June at the NSS prison. Twenty-one men remain held at the NSS prison under poor conditions with lack of access to appropriate medical treatment.

Fifteen individuals whom Amnesty International had previously campaigned on were among a group of detainees released from the National Security Service (NSS) headquarters on 10 August. Five men remain arbitrarily detained at the NSS headquarters, while one has been charged. 1) TAKE ACTION Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:
  • Insisting that the South Sudanese authorities, if credible evidence of a recognized offence exists, charge the remaining NSS detainees promptly and present them in court or release them immediately;
  • Urging them to ensure that detainees are not subjected to torture and other ill-treatment while in detention and are granted access to adequate medical care, lawyers of their own choosing, and are allowed family visits;
  • Calling on them to initiate prompt, effective and impartial investigations into NSS detention practices, including enforced disappearances, deaths in custody, torture and other ill-treatment, to publicly disclose the findings, and where there is evidence of the commission of criminal offences to hold perpetrators accountable in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty;
  • Calling on them to provide prompt and adequate reparation to individuals released without charge, including medical and psychological rehabilitation.

Contact these two officials by 30 November, 2017:

President of the Republic of South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit Twitter: @RepSouthSudan Salutation: Your Excellency

Ambassador Garang Diing Akuong, Embassy of the Republic of South Sudan 1015 31st Street NW Suite 300, Washington, DC 20007 Phone: 202 2937940 Fax: 202 293 7941 Email: [email protected] Contact form: http://www.southsudanembassyusa.org/contact/ Salutation: Dear Ambassador

2) LET US KNOW YOU TOOK ACTION Click here to let us know if you took action on this case! This is Urgent Action 87.16 Here’s why it is so important to report your actions: we record the actions taken on each case—letters, emails, calls and tweets—and use that information in our advocacy. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Â