The Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs has urged the police across the country to arraign suspects in court within 72 hours of arrest.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday after an inspection visit to three police stations in Juba, Dr. Gabriel Isaac, the undersecretary in the justice ministry said the move is to ensure that police cells are decongested and justice served.
“The reason for our coming here is that we do not want anyone to be in custody without any legal grounds,” he said. “So we will be sure that whoever is in a cell and there is no solution to their case, let be either taken to court or prison (remand).”
The undersecretary also demanded that the police free anyone incarcerated without a formal case being opened.
He revealed that during the inspection visit to Malakia, Gudele, and Munuki police stations, they noticed that the number of those in jail and cases have reduced.
“With this inspection visit, we discovered that the number of cases, even major ones have reduced,” he said.
According to Isaac, the reduction in cases is an indication that the government is working hard to combat crimes.
Most of the cases reported to police in the city include theft, robbery, adultery, and murder among others.
“For sure, I will not be able to tell the number of cases but I want to tell you in general that let us be optimistic that the major cases and insecurity in Juba have reduced to a minimum, and we will continue to work on this,” he said.