South Sudan Sentences Activist Peter Biar Ajak to Two Years in Prison

A 35-year-old Cambridge University PhD student, Peter Biar Ajak, has been sentenced to two years in prison in South Sudan at the Juba High Court on 11 June 2019 for allegedly threatening South Sudan’s national security.

Ajak is a critic of his country’s regime, has been detained without charge since his arrest by the National Security Services (NSS), South Sudan’s intelligence agency at Juba Airport on 28 July 2018.

Ajak called for the country’s current leaders, South Sudanese President Salva Kiir Mayardit and former South Sudanese vice president Riek Machar to step down so that the younger and new generation could take over and achieve peace in South Sudan. 

Ajak travelled to South Sudan from the UK to a youth forum he had organised in Aweil.

He was one of at least 20,000 children who were dubbed the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’ after they were separated from their families during the Second Sudanese civil war, which lasted from 1983 – 2005 and las left roughly two million people dead and four million Southern Sudanese displaced.

He resettled in the US and went on to study at La Salle, Harvard and Cambridge. He has worked as an economist for the World Bank, founded the Centre for Strategic Analysis and Research (C-SAR) in Juba and was the chairman for the South Sudan Youth Leaders Forum (SSYLF).

Since his arrest in July 2018, social media users have launched the hashtag, #FreePeterAjak. Since news of his prison sentence, social media users have continued using the hashtag, calling for his release from prison.

@AjakPeter, A South Sudanese academic based at @Cambridge_Uni (and a frequent contributor on Kenyan television) has been sentenced to two years in prison. #FreePeterAjak

— Nanjala Nyabola (@Nanjala1) June 11, 2019

What exactly has @AjakPeter done that made the so-called #southSudan’s national security to arrest him in Juba? Being critical + varying expressing different view against one government are the true definition of one’s love for country. #freePeterAjak

— Jay K Deng (@dengjk) July 28, 2018

Ajak is among eight detainees along with businessman Kerbino Wol  who stood trial at the Juba High Court for allegedly threatening South Sudan’s national security. Wol received 10 years in prison. Both Ajak and Wol have 14 days to appeal their prison sentences.

Kerbino Wol sentenced to ten years. #SouthSudan

— Sisi Majok 🇸🇸 (@modernemeid) June 11, 2019