Suspended Petroleum Minister Puot Kang Chol told the special court in Juba on Wednesday that his phone password was obtained under what he described as an “explicit threat” by National Security Service officers during his arrest and detention in March 2025.
Speaking during the 74th court session at Freedom Hall, Kang, who is the first accused, alleged that officers from the National Security Service compelled him to surrender access to his mobile devices.
“While we were arrested, our phones were taken immediately and they were taken by force. Also the passwords to our phones were not provided voluntarily; they were by force as well on 5th March 2025 under explicit threat,” Kang said.
He said he was threatened while in detention and warned of serious consequences if he did not comply.
“That we would face serious consequences if we don’t comply with National Security Service officers. So, with no choice, we had to comply,” he said.
The 41-year-old opposition official said he was arrested on March 4 at his residence in Thongpiny without his immunity being lifted or authorisation from the president.
“A whole minister not removed from the office was collected like a bag of rice from a shop at Konyo-Konyo market. Your lordship, I was interrogated on March 25–26, 2025 in Blue House hall,” he said.
He told the court he was taken to a detention facility in Riverside along with 11 others, including bodyguards, a gateman, relatives, and students who had come to his apartment to watch a football match.
“It was at this facility that I was ordered to sleep on a bed made to stand on four jerry cans for seven months, which caused me back pain and persistent injury,” he said.
Kang further said National Security Service officers later raided his home and seized 10 vehicles, including his bulletproof car, which he claimed was later taken and used by South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) Chief of Defence Forces Lt. Gen. Paul Nang Majok.
“When I was arrested, I did not know what happened thereafter at home. I was informed in September 2025 that after my arrest, my house was raided by officers of the National Security Service and 10 cars were taken from the house,” he said.
“It is alleged that one of my cars, a bulletproof one, was taken by one of the strongmen of this country in the person of the Chief of Defence Forces of SSPDF, Gen. Paul Nang Majok, and that he is using it.”
He added: “This is my personal or private car. Even if I was to be sentenced to death, it belongs to my family, unless we have gone back to village life where, when you defeat your enemy, you raid his cows.”
Presiding Judge James Alala Deng adjourned the hearing to Friday, May 8, 2026, for judges to continue examining the first accused, Puot Kang Chol.
Kang, 41, faces charges including murder, conspiracy, terrorism, treason and crimes against humanity.
Co-defendants include suspended First Vice President Riek Machar, Mam Pal Dhuor, Gatwech Lam Puoch, Lt. Gen. Gabriel Duop Lam, Camilo Gatmai Kel, Mading Yak Riek, and Dominic Gatgok Riek.
Machar is under house arrest, while the co-accused remain in detention under the National Security Service.
Prosecutors allege that forces of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army-in-Opposition (SPLA-IO), allied with the White Army militia, killed 257 South Sudan People’s Defence Forces soldiers, including commander David Majur Dak, and destroyed or seized military equipment worth about $58 million in an attack on a garrison in Nasir in March 2025.
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