{"id":45656,"date":"2026-06-25T16:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=45656"},"modified":"2026-06-25T16:00:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:00:51","slug":"accused-no-3-rejects-prosecution-evidence-calls-electronic-messages-fabricated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/25\/accused-no-3-rejects-prosecution-evidence-calls-electronic-messages-fabricated\/","title":{"rendered":"Accused no. 3 rejects prosecution evidence, calls electronic messages \u2018fabricated\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Accused No. 3, Gatwech Lam Puoch, has rejected allegations presented against him by the prosecution and a digital forensic expert.<\/p>\n

Lam insisted that the evidence relied upon by the prosecution team was inaccurate and lacked a factual basis.<\/p>\n

Speaking during the 91st session of proceedings before the Special Court, Lam continued presenting his defense statement, disputing claims that he had described the Agwelek and Abushok forces as militias.<\/p>\n

According to Lam, the prosecution misrepresented his statements contained in video evidence that had previously been presented before the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the allegations against me is that I described Agwelek and Abushok as militias and asserted that their mission was to disarm the local population. This allegation is entirely unfounded and without factual basis,\u201d Lam told the court.<\/p>\n

He thanked the court for replaying the video evidence twice during one of the proceedings, arguing that the footage clearly demonstrated that he never used the term \u201cmilitia.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI never used the term ‘militia’ at any point. The video can explain itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, Lam maintained that he referred to the groups as forces that had not been integrated into the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF).<\/p>\n

The accused also challenged the authenticity of electronic messages that the prosecution has relied upon as part of its evidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith regard to the alleged electronic messages relied upon by the prosecution, those messages are fabricated and do not exist in my WhatsApp application,\u201d Lam said.<\/p>\n

His remarks formed part of a broader defense aimed at discrediting both the prosecution\u2019s interpretation of video recordings and the findings presented by a digital expert witness.<\/p>\n

The Special Court has been hearing the case over several months, with the prosecution presenting witnesses and digital evidence intended to support charges against the accused persons.<\/p>\n

The defense has now entered a critical stage in which the accused are responding directly to the allegations and challenging the evidence presented against them.<\/p>\n

After several hours of deliberations, the presiding judge, Dr. James Alala Deng, adjourned the session until Friday, June 26, 2026.<\/p>\n

When proceedings resume, Accused No. 3 is expected to continue presenting his defense statement before the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Yiep Joseph Accused No. 3, Gatwech Lam Puoch, has rejected allegations presented against him by the prosecution and a digital forensic expert. Lam insisted that the evidence relied upon by the prosecution team was inaccurate and lacked a factual basis. Speaking during the 91st session of proceedings before the[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":45384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news","category-politics"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MP-Gatwech-Lam-Puoch-during-one-of-the-court-session-courtesy-photo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45656","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=45656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45657,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45656\/revisions\/45657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}