Deng Richard
Africa-Press – South-Sudan. South Sudan has been told to bring to an end arbitrary arrests and detention by national security.
Two international human rights lobby groups are now urging the parliament to revise the National Security Service Amendment Bill before it is assented into law by the president.
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch in a joint letter to parliament pointed out shortcomings in the bill believed to be the lacuna for human rights subversion.
Africa’s regional director for Human Rights Watch, Mausi Segun, noted that the revision to address the outstanding gaps in the law that governs the National Security Service is very critical to streamlining the operations of the agency.
“An in-depth review and revision of outstanding gaps in the law governing the National Security Service is critical…Parliament needs to ensure that the pending law genuinely limits the security service’s powers and strengthens oversight of the agency’s activities,” Segun said.
According to Segun, the current National Security Service Act of 2014 gives the agency “broad and unqualified powers that allow it to commit serious abuses with impunity, creating and sustaining a climate of repression and fear.”
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch added that the bill to amend the 2014 law currently before parliament was drafted by the National Constitutional Amendment Committee (NCAC) as part of the reforms initiated by the Revitalized Peace Agreement of 2018.
Following a lack of consensus by committee members about the agency’s authority to make arrests, the bill was referred to the Justice Ministry in 2019 and then to the presidency in April 2021 for resolution.
In December 2022, the justice minister recommended to the cabinet and the presidency that the agency’s authority to arrest and detain suspects should be limited. Then on February 22, 2023, several media outlets reported that the presidency had agreed to abolish the agency’s authority to arrest and detain people, with or without a warrant.
On May 9, the media reported that the bill would be presented for its first reading in parliament within two weeks, which has since elapsed.
While to arrest or not still remains a debate, especially in reference to the NSS powers, the body maintains that it has the legal backing to arrest without a warrant per Section 7 of the National Security Act 2014.
‘‘Anyone found committing any of the offences against the state listed in Section 7 of the National Security Act, or who is reasonably suspected of having committed; attempting to commit or is about to commit such an offence, is capable of being arrested without a warrant, and any service officer detained,” noted a statement issued by David John Kumuri in April 2022.
He also stated that anyone arrested under the law must appear before a magistrate within 24 hours, regardless of whether police have completed investigations or not.
“Our responsibility is to make sure that we prevent and control a crime, and that is why sometimes we take action and arrest based on the Act 2014, and is, of course, to safeguard and protect our people.’’
Source: The City Review South Sudan
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