(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 17 August 2001, a Sudanese professor filed a court action in Nairobi, the country’s capital, against the leader of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), Colonel John Garang. The professor is seeking damages for defamation. Professor Bona Malwal, a senior research fellow at Oxford University in Britain, also sought an injunction to […]
(NDIMA/IFEX) – On 17 August 2001, a Sudanese professor filed a court action in Nairobi, the country’s capital, against the leader of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), Colonel John Garang. The professor is seeking damages for defamation.
Professor Bona Malwal, a senior research fellow at Oxford University in Britain, also sought an injunction to restrain Garang and Michael George Garang Deng from threatening to kill, eliminate or cause him harm. Garang Deng is the editor of “Update” magazine, the SPLM/SPLA mouthpiece.
John Khaminwa, the Nairobi-based lawyer representing Malwal, said his client would seek further recompense for defamation, based on the charge of aggravated or exemplary damages.
Malwal’s action comes in the wake of an article published in the 1 December 2000 edition of the magazine, linking him to the assassination of William Deng Nhial, one of the guerilla leaders fighting for southern Sudan’s independence from the Arab north.
He is also suing because he has been portrayed as a traitor who is on the payroll of President Omar El Bashir’s National Islamic Front government.
