JUBA, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The South Sudan Liberation Army (SPLA) court on Thursday sentenced ten soldiers to long-term imprisonment for raping foreign aid workers besides robbery and murder during the outbreak of renewed violence in the capital of Juba in July 2016.
Neath Almaz Juma, chairman of the military court, said five soldiers will serve 10 year prison sentence, and two others were convicted to life sentence. The others will serve between seven years and 14 years.
The verdict brings an end to a trial which commenced on May 30 2017 and had somewhere stalled due to lack of witnesses who fled the country during the renewed violence between government troops and rebels allied to former First Vice President Riek Machar.
According to military prosecutors, the court invited and interviewed some of the victims from foreign countries to finally conclude the widely publicized trial which has been closely followed by diplomats amid criticism on delays in expediting justice by the UN human rights division and other international NGOs.
The military court also ordered compensation for the six victims including a local journalist John Gatluak who was shot dead by the soldiers at the Terrain hotel located South of Juba.
It ordered payment of 2.3 million U.S. dollars to Michael Woodward, the proprietor of Terrain Hotel as compensation in damages caused by the errant soldiers meanwhile six victims of rape will be paid each 4,000 dollars.
The family of the slain journalist Gatluak who was killed for belonging to the Nuer tribe of rebel leader Machar by the soldiers from the Tiger division responsible for President Salva Kiir's security will receive 51 heads of cattle as compensation from the government.
President Kiir and Machar, leader of SPLA-in opposition rebel group, signed the Aug. 5 peace agreement in the Sudanese capital to end over four years of conflict which started in December 2013 leading to killing of thousands of people. Millions are displaced internally and externally.
