Soldiers use such a roadblock across the country to extort money from public service vehicles and humanitarian convoys. | File photo

The former commissioner of Rumbek East County has been re-arrested for suing an army commander he accuses of violating his freedom of expression.

James Dhieu Mading was detained again on Monday, after he sued an SSPDF commander for detaining him for talking to the media.

The detention came shortly after he filed a court case against  Gen. Jima Rehan.

Hi wife Elizabeth Akolda stressed that Gen. Rehan of Division Six detained her husband for speaking to Eye Radio about the lawsuit.

Akolda said: “The problem is, that man in the army called Jima Rehan. He arrested my husband yesterday [Monday] at 1 o’clock, saying ‘I don’t want you to speak or talk any more to the media. I don’t want it’.”

A right enshrined in the constitution of South Sudan, Freedom of expression means the ability of an individual or group of individuals to express their beliefs, thoughts, ideas, and emotions about different issues free from government censorship.

Two weeks ago, soldiers stopped him and his family at Aduel Payam while traveling in a vehicle from Juba to Rumbek.

They kept him in an army cell for three days after he declined to pay illegal checkpoint fees.

Akolda added that Mading is now being arbitrarily held at a military barrack in Rumbek.

“Malicious information”

When contacted by Eye Radio on Tuesday, the spokesperson of SSPDF confirmed the arrest of the former county commissioner.

However, Maj.-Gen. Lul Ruai said that James Dhieu Mading is under detention for spreading “malicious information” about the national army.

“It is true that James Dhieu Mading, the former commissioner of Rumbek East, was arrested for spreading malicious information against SSDF deployed in Greater Lakes region,” Maj.-Gen. Ruai claimed.

In 2018, President Salva Kiir ordered the closure of all illegal checkpoints, but the directive largely remains unimplemented in many parts of the country.

Both military and political leaders in South Sudan have allowed impunity to flourish over serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed since brutal conflict broke out in December 2013, according to Amnesty International.

Last week, UNMISS Head David Shearer pointed out impunity as one of the four major problems the coalition government must address in order to function well.