Suspended Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol. |Courtesy PPU

The suspended Minister of Petroleum, Puot Kang Chol, told a Special Court on Monday that Stephen Par Kuol was allegedly released from the Blue House after bowing to what he termed a “surrender” agenda of their peace partner, the SPLM.

Testifying on Monday, June 1, 2026, during the 82nd session of proceedings at Freedom Hall in Juba, Puot stated that Par, a member of the SPLM-IO political bureau, was arrested and taken to the Blue House detention facility on the exact same day as himself and Brig. Gen. Camilo Gatmai.

According to Puot, Par was abruptly released the following morning after receiving a visit from an officer at the facility. “One can only speculate and conclude that he was released because he agreed to accept the agenda of our peace partner—who is also our accuser and prosecutor,” Puot told the panel of judges.

He questioned what dynamic shifted overnight to “turn Stephen Par into an angel” when both had been detained under the exact same criminal accusations hours prior.

In a scathing assessment of the political environment, the suspended minister argued that the current administration has presented opposition figures and dissenting voices with only two stark paths:

“Option one: surrender and bow before us so that you will be referred to as a nationalist. Option two: death, arrest, and prosecution, as we are witnessing here now. Since there are only two options available, we have chosen to suffer rather than bow before another human being who is not God.”

Invoking regional history, Puot referenced the Roman Emperor Aurelian, who utilized a slave to constantly remind him of his mortality. “I would like to whisper to those in the Government: you are in power, but you are human, and you must remember that you will one day die like any of us,” he warned.

Puot denied all criminal charges leveled against him, characterizing the trial as a “politico-tribal game” designed to wear a judicial mask while attempting to hoodwink the public.

He asserted that the true objective behind the prosecution of the eight SPLM/A-IO detainees is an attempt by government factions to block the implementation of the Revitalized Peace Agreement (R-ARCSS) to prolong their stay in power.

Addressing the court on the specific evidence brought against him regarding the Nasir Town conflict on March 3, 2025, Puot categorized his position into several core defense points, stating that he was not present in Nasir Town and had no connection or communication with the youth who clashed with the SSPDF.

Puot accused the National Security Service (NSS) of forcibly obtaining his phone password, inserting fabricated text messages, and employing a South African expert to stage a weak data compilation, and rejected prosecution claims that he channeled sums of $30,000 or $1,500 to the local youth forces, calling the financial trail entirely baseless.

The suspended minister reminded the panel that the eyes of the entire country—from a young schoolgirl blocked from classes by war in the far east, to unpaid civil service gatekeepers in the far north—are waiting on the integrity of this verdict.

Puot concluded his testimony with a direct appeal to the bench to maintain its constitutional separation from political rivalries, praying that the panel acquits him and his co-accused of all charges.

“I trust that Your Lordships will see through the evident deficiencies and underlying motives,” Puot stated, “and thereby affirm that the courts of the Republic of South Sudan remain guardians of justice and not instruments of political expediency.”