Catholic nun Vironika Rackova. (-)

The High Court in Juba’s Kator has adjourned the pronouncement of a judgment on the 2016 murder of Yei-based Catholic nun, Veronika Rackova due to a busy schedule of the police in charge, according to James Paulino Lado the Prosecution Advocate for the slain religious sister.

The Slovakian missionary sister was shot in the abdomen and her hip by formerly SPLA soldiers while on an emergency referral mission in Yei town.

She was then airlifted to Nairobi, Kenya where she succumbed to the gunshot wounds.

At the request of South Sudan religious leaders, her remains were flown from Nairobi to South Sudan’s Yei Diocese on 27 May 2016 where she was laid to rest.

Three suspected Sudan People’s Liberation Army Soldiers, now SSPDF were reportedly arrested in connection with the attack on the missionary Nun.

The final verdict over the case was supposed to be announced today, six years after the incident.

But advocate Lado says the police personnel who were assigned to produce the accused have traveled to the Bahr el Ghazal region where they will spend two weeks to pay police salaries.

“The judgment is supposed to be pronounced today but unfortunately, the administration of National Security Service and the legal administration are too busy today.

“The personnel who were assigned to present the accused before the court were given an assignment to be part of the salary committee who traveled to Bahr–el Ghazal region for 14 days. That’s why the session has been adjourned today. But the judge rescheduled another session on 14^th, Nov 2023.”

While serving in South Sudan, Sr. Veronica pioneered Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSPS) in Yei Diocese in 2010.

In May 2022 Sr. Beni Gilda, a member of the missionary serving in the South Sudanese, said that colleagues, family, friends, and those who had interacted with Sr. Veronica were praying and waiting for justice for her.

Commenting on the court proceeding, Advocate Lado assured the late family that justice would prevail.

“I want to tell and assure the family of the late Reverence Sister Doctor Veronika Teresia Rackova that justice will prevail. The accused will take his punishment. This is the message I would like to tell the family and to the believers of the Catholic Church at large.”