{"id":44202,"date":"2026-04-28T11:47:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:47:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=44202"},"modified":"2026-04-28T11:47:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T09:47:03","slug":"court-rejects-defense-bid-for-ssbc-live-coverage-in-dr-machar-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/court-rejects-defense-bid-for-ssbc-live-coverage-in-dr-machar-trial\/","title":{"rendered":"Court rejects defense bid for SSBC live coverage in Dr. Machar trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yiep Joseph<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The special court trying suspended First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and seven co-accused has dismissed a defense application seeking permission for live broadcast of the proceedings on the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC).<\/p>\n

The ruling was made during the court\u2019s 72nd session on Monday, following a previous request by the defense team.<\/p>\n

In the past session, defense lawyer Kur Lual Kuir had requested that the proceedings be televised live, arguing for greater public access as the trial progresses.<\/p>\n

The defense also requested a one-week adjournment to allow time to prepare the accused for questioning by the judges.<\/p>\n

However, both requests were opposed by the prosecution, which argued that the trial is already open to the public and that live coverage was unnecessary.<\/p>\n

The prosecution further warned that broadcasting the proceedings could allow the defense to use the courtroom for political messaging and campaigns.<\/p>\n

During the session, the court maintained its earlier position on media coverage.<\/p>\n

Judge Stephen Simon Isaac said the court would not revisit its previous ruling barring live broadcasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court does not want to repeat itself in this regard. The court prohibited live broadcast of the session, and it cannot overrule its previous decision,\u201d Isaac said.<\/p>\n

Presiding Judge James Alala Deng later adjourned the case until Monday, May 4, 2026, when the court is expected to begin questioning the accused.<\/p>\n

Machar, 73, who remains under house arrest, faces charges including murder, conspiracy, terrorism, treason, and crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n

His co-accused are being held in detention under the National Security Service.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege that forces of the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Army-in-Opposition, reportedly allied with the White Army militia, killed 257 South Sudan People\u2019s Defence Forces soldiers, including commander David Majur Dak, and destroyed or seized military equipment worth about $58 million during an attack on a garrison in Nasir in March 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yiep Joseph The special court trying suspended First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar and seven co-accused has dismissed a defense application seeking permission for live broadcast of the proceedings on the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation (SSBC). The ruling was made during the court\u2019s 72nd session on Monday, following[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/churchs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44203,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44202\/revisions\/44203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}