A County court judge in Aweil East has convicted South Sudan people defense force brigadier general and sentence him to 5 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of rape.
Brigadier Gen. Lial Wol is alleged to have raped a girl of 10-year-old last year when he was serving at Warguet as brigade seven commander under SSPDF Lion division three in Wunyiik, Northern Bahr el Ghazal state.
The verdict was announced on Wednesday in Wanyjok by the 1st grade county court judge Mathiang Kuach Mathiang. Mr. Lial Wol is also ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 SSP equivalent of $ 230 as a compensation for the treatment of the survivor.
The judge says Mr. Lial Wol age 55 will serve his 5 years jail term at a military barrack prison at Wunyiik in Aweil East.
The plaintiff defends lawyer Akok Ariath welcome the court ruling, saying the decision will signal other rappers to avoid such crimes against young girls.
“Am happy that the court was able to handle this case by sentencing the man to five years prison, and he is also asked by the court to pay for the young girl treatment cost.”
However the defend lawyer of Mr. Lial Wol, Madut Santino described the ruling as unfair and expressed readiness to appeal against the decision high court of appeal review the county court ruling.
“We are not happy because of the way the court has handled the case. We shall be going for appeal so that we can see how the other high court is going to handle this case again.”
The convict Lial Wol was escort out of the court by soldiers from SSPDF and was wearing civilian clothes and taken to Wanyjok prison where he will be transfer to the military barrack prison.
In December last year, a women-led a campaign calling for an end of gender-based violence, including rape against women and girls in the country.