Riek Machar Teny and seven co-accused.
Tuesday, 17 March 2026 | Author – Alex Onyango | Nairobi-Kenya |File Photo| GT-News |
A special court in South Sudan on Monday, 16 March 2026, admitted contested digital evidence in the trial of several accused linked to the detained former First Vice President, Riek Machar Teny, and seven other accused in connection with Nasir clashes that claimed several government soldiers and wounded dozens, despite objections from the defence.
A digital forensic expert, Ratlhogo Calvin Rafhadi, presented hash values — unique digital identifiers used to verify the integrity of electronic data — as part of the prosecution’s case.
Rafhadi told the court the hash values corresponded to data extracted from mobile phones belonging to the accused, including messages, videos and audio files.
Defence lawyers objected to the submission, arguing the documents lacked formal authentication such as dates, signatures and official stamps. They also requested the court to order the opening of the accused persons’ phones — excluding that of SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar — to allow for effective cross-examination.
Prosecutor Ajo Ony’Ohisa opposed the request, saying the court had previously ruled against opening the devices during the expert’s testimony. He added that the prosecution would not object if the defence appointed an independent expert to examine the phones.
After a brief adjournment, presiding judge James Alala Deng ruled that the absence of signatures or stamps did not invalidate the documents and admitted the hash values as evidence under the prosecution’s forensic report.
He said the defence remained free to challenge the material by presenting its own expert.
During cross-examination, defence counsel Geri Raymond Legge asked whether Rafhadi had verified if some of the alleged communications — including battlefield updates and troop movements attributed to the first accused, Pout Kang Chol — were already publicly available at the time.
Rafhadi said he had not conducted such verification, stating that his analysis was limited to the extracted data and its timestamps.
Justice James Alala adjourned the hearing until March 18 for further cross-examination.
Riek Machar has been charged with murder, treason and crimes against humanity in a move that some fear could reignite the country’s civil war.
The 2018 peace deal ended the conflict that had killed nearly 400,000 people, however the relationship between Machar and Kiir has become increasingly strained amid ethnic tensions and sporadic violence.
Seven others have been charged alongside Machar, including Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol and Army Deputy Chief of Staff Lt Gen Gabriel Duop Lam, Justice Minister Joseph Geng Akech said in a statement.
They are all Machar allies who were arrested at the same time as him and have also been in detention ever since. Another 13 suspects remain at large, the minister said.
