Gender Based Violence special court, officially inaugurated in Nov. 2020 during #16DaysofActivism - courtesy

The Gender-Based Violence Court has punished a young man with a 10-year jail term for sexually assaulting a 14-year–old girl.

The GBV court found 21-year-old Thomas Asai Epit guilty of molesting the girl on several occasions in his neighborhood in Lologo two area.

Upon indictment, convict Asai had pleaded not guilty arguing he acted according to his tradition.

But Judge Francis Amum who presided the session invoked section 247/2 of the South Sudan penal act 2008 which states that children do not consent to sexual assault.

The section also asserts that children are weak and vulnerable to consent to sexual activities or appreciate the nature of sexual activities.

In addition, it stressed that a man or woman below the age of eighteen years can be subject to manipulation and exploitation.

According to Judge Amum, the prosecution had sufficiently proved that Asai performed unlawful sexual acts with the girl on 15th of November 2021 in Lologo two area.

“Convict is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment to be served starting from the date of his remand on 21/Dec/2021 Convict have to pay 500,000 SSP to the survivor as reparation by means of civil proceeding”, Judge Francis Amum made the ruling in Juba on Wednesday morning.

He added that; “convict is advised that he has a right to enjoy an automatic right of appeal against both conviction and sentence within 15 days”, Judge Amum stated.

The verdict is reportedly the sixth this year of cases related to sexual assaults including defilement.