Wau Central Prison, Western Bahr el Ghazal State/ courtesy photo

A court in Western Bahr el Ghazal state has jailed 31 young men and fined each 20,000 South Sudanese Pounds for disturbing public order in Wau town.

The youths were arrested on Sunday night by Wau Police while allegedly trying to break into State Legislative Assembly.

They were tried at the Wau Municipality open court on Monday.

Each convict has been sentenced to two months in imprisonment and ordered to pay the cash fine.

Western Bahr el Ghazal state deputy police commissioner, Major General James Simon warned that failure to pay the fine, the individuals will have their jail terms extended for another two months.

“They will be paying this amount within two months, and if each of them fails, will be detained for two more months in jail.”

“The case was opened against them because of being ‘nigas’, touching the gate of the [legislative] assembly and disordering the law of peace within our community by forming a ‘gang’ group.’

For his part, Wau town Mayor Saed Paulino Uku blamed parents for not controlling their children.

“Let us be responsible, it is not true that your girl or son at the age of 15 years old takes permission from you to go out. Some children just leave their homes while their parents are there.”

Reacting to the decision, Western Bahr el Ghazal state coordinator for the Community Empowerment for Progress organization criticized the trial saying, the convicts were not given enough time to defend themselves before the court of law.

Stephen Robo Musa argued that some of the youths may have been arrested without being part of the crime.

“There should be a due legal process to be followed to enable the suspects to defend themselves before the law because it is not clear whether these 31 youths were also responsible for touching the assembly main gate.”