JUBA, Sept 23 (AGCNewsNet) – The criminal trial of South Sudan’s suspended Vice President, Riek Machar, opened Monday in Juba, with the rebel leader appearing in court for the first time since his house arrest in March.

Machar, who was suspended earlier this month by President Salva Kiir, stood in a cage alongside seven co-defendants as proceedings began in a special court session broadcast on national television.

The charges against him include treason, crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy, terrorism, and destruction of public property and military assets. Authorities allege Machar was involved in orchestrating an attack on a government military garrison earlier this year.

Machar’s defense team challenged the court’s jurisdiction, calling it “incompetent” and arguing that prosecuting him undermines the 2018 peace deal signed with Kiir. That agreement ended a civil war that claimed an estimated 400,000 lives and established South Sudan’s transitional unity government, in which Machar had been serving as first vice president.

Defense lawyers stressed that the peace deal governs South Sudan’s fragile political framework and warned that prosecuting Machar could fuel renewed conflict, as armed groups allegedly loyal to him continue to clash with government forces.

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.

Machar and Kiir, once allies in South Sudan’s decades-long independence struggle, have a fraught history of rivalry dating back to the 1990s. Ethnic tensions between Kiir’s Dinka community, the country’s largest, and Machar’s Nuer group, the second-largest, have fueled repeated cycles of violence, including the 1991 Bor massacre, in which forces loyal to Machar were accused of killing thousands of Dinka civilians.

The trial marks the latest escalation in South Sudan’s volatile political landscape, raising fears that the young nation could again slide into full-scale war.

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