S. Sudan Rebels Welcome Juba's Drop Of Politicians Charges

Negotiators representing South Sudan's rebel camp at peace talks in Addis Ababa welcomed a decision by the Juba government to drop treason charges against four politicians linked to sacked vice president and rebel leader Riek Machar.



"This was the precondition we have been presenting from the early days of the talks," the spokesman for the pro-Machar delegation, Yohannes Mussa Pouk, told Anadolu Agency from Addis Ababa.



He said the decision had been issued by a Juba court due to internal and external pressure on the South Sudanese government to release the four men, adding that they would likely be freed on Friday.



"The court decision came after the witnesses, including the minister of intelligence and the interior minister, could not implicate the detainees in any coup plot," he said, lauding the witnesses for their integrity.



Pagan Amum Okech, Oyai Deng Ajak, Majak D'Agoot and Ezekiel Lul Gatkuoth were arrested shortly after the political crisis that erupted on December 15 when South Sudanese President Salva Kiir accused Machar of attempting to carry out a coup against his rule.



"We now expect the four ex-officials to leave Juba as soon as they are released," he said. "It is their choice, once free, to decide which side they will be by."



Earlier in the day, Justice Minister Paulino Wanawilla Unango said the treason charges against the four men had been dropped on Kiir's orders.



"By tomorrow, the four detainees will be free and the government is answerable and accountable for all the questions to be raised," the minister said.



Unango, however, insisted that the case against three others – including Machar himself – was still underway.



The ongoing conflict has already claimed more than 10,000 lives, with the U.N. estimating that some one million South Sudanese have already been displaced by the violence.



englishnews@aa.com.tr - Addis Ababa