By Yiep Joseph
As the court trying Puot Kang and seven co-accused continues with the hearing of witnesses, a series of revelations continue to flows.
This case is one of the high-profile cases handled by the country’s judiciary, as it involved the suspended First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny as one of the accused.
The 34th session conducted on Monday continued with the presentations from the fifth prosecution witness.
During the session, Sgt. Maj. Ater Bol Piol, the fifth witness, who is also a survivor of the Nasir conflict, said that he was captured and stayed in Ulang County waiting for the plane to evacuate him to Juba.
Bol claimed that he went through a series of interrogations from the officers of both the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) and the White Army.
As a member of the South Sudan People’s Defense Forces (SSPDF), Bol said he was also in connection with the leadership regarding his evacuation.
After securing protection from one of the SPLA-IO leaders for whom he treated his child sometime back, he was able to have his phone and communicate with his relatives.
As the process to evacuate him was close, as it was rumored that the plane could land in Ulang soon, there was a demand for him to call his relative to pay some money before he is released.
He told the court that the leaders from the SPLA-IO and the whites demanded $20,000 for his release.
Bol claimed that the SPLA-IO commanders holding him hostage demanded $20,000 for his release.
He told the abductors that the demand was too much, citing that his family has no such money and can not afford.
He informed his brother and his wife in Juba about the demand from the SPLA-IO and the white army.
However, his relatives expressed that the amount was too much.
Following negotiations, the commander who is holding him accepted 11.5 million South Sudanese pounds, the amount offered by the family based on their capacity.
He added a narration of a series of challenges, including threats from both the SPLA-IO and the White Army.
Bol added that as it has been communicated by the Chief of Defense Forces of the SSPDF, the plane landed in Ulang to pick him and other colleagues who were captured during the Nasir conflict.
At the airstrip, Bol testified, a military general who came with the plane to pick them up presented two letters, both demanding their evacuation to the SPLA-IO officers at the airstrip.
Bol was later airlifted from Ulang on a commercial airplane along with eight other survivors who also allegedly paid ransom, and brought to Juba on March 19.
He narrated that after he landed in Juba, he was investigated by the SSPDF investigative committee regarding what happened in Nasir since he was the head of the artillery.
Bol was cross-examined and re-examined and examined by the judges, hence concluding his part.
The court adjourned the session to January 5, 2026, when the prosecution’s sixth witness is expected to appear.
Machar and his co-accused face charges over the March 2025 Nasir incident, including murder, conspiracy, terrorism, financing terrorism, treason, destruction of public property and military assets, and crimes against humanity.
The government alleges SPLA-IO forces, allied with the White Army, caused the deaths of a general and 257 soldiers and the loss of weapons valued at $58 million.