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Legalbrief   |   your legal news hub Friday 29 March 2024

UK student languishes in South Sudan ‘hellhole’

A Cambridge University student facing the death penalty in South Sudan is being ‘arbitrarily detained in a modern-day hellhole’. BBC News reports that PhD student Peter Ajak, a critic of his country's regime, has been detained without charge since his arrest at Juba Airport in July. His lawyer Jared Genser said this was ‘in clear violation of his rights under international law’. Amnesty International is campaigning on his behalf and his plight was highlighted in the US Congress last week. Genser said his client had called for the country's current leaders to step down so that younger people could take over and achieve peace. ‘This has become a real problem for the government in South Sudan, which then decides to target him for arrest and arbitrary detention because he was being a very effective critic,’ he said.