A lawmaker standing trial alongside South Sudan’s First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar has told a special court that the prosecution’s digital forensic expert lacked the competence to provide evidence in one of the country’s most high-profile criminal cases.
Speaking during the 93rd session of the Special Court on the Incident of Nasir on Monday, the third accused MP Gatwech Lam Puoch continued his defense by challenging the credibility and reliability of the digital evidence presented against him.
He described the prosecution’s forensic analysis as unreliable, unverified, and procedurally defective, urging the court to dismiss the evidence in its entirety.
Addressing the court, Puoch argued that the prosecution had relied on an inexperienced expert in a case carrying serious charges and severe penalties.
“It was a serious mistake for the prosecution to contract an inexperienced individual as an expert witness in a high-profile case of alleged crimes against the state, in which the maximum penalty is death sentence or life imprisonment, when he clearly lacks knowledge of the political and legal developments in the Republic of South Sudan,” he told the court.
He further criticized the expert for describing the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) as an international legal instrument, arguing that the peace agreement forms part of South Sudan’s domestic legal framework and serves as the foundation of the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity.
According to Gatwech, the expert’s interpretation demonstrated a misunderstanding of the country’s legal framework and undermined the credibility of the prosecution’s findings.
He also questioned the forensic report’s consistency, pointing to what he described as contradictory findings regarding his identity and the attribution of telephone numbers cited in the prosecution’s evidence.
Gatwech told the court that some of the phone records and messages presented by investigators belonged to another individual and were wrongly linked to him.
The lawmaker further alleged that some of the WhatsApp messages and other digital materials attributed to him could have been inserted into his mobile phone while it remained in the custody of the National Security Service (NSS) and the prosecution following his arrest.
He argued that because the device had been under state control for an extended period before being produced in court, the possibility of evidence being added could not be ruled out.
Gatwech also rejected an audio recording presented by the prosecution’s digital forensic expert, saying the identities of the speakers had never been established and that there was no factual basis linking the recording to him.
He maintained that the prosecution had failed to provide credible evidence connecting him to the alleged digital communications or to accusations that he supported the White Army or disseminated intelligence information, describing the allegations as vague, baseless and unsupported by forensic analysis.
The Special Court adjourned the proceedings until July 3, 2026, when Gatwech Lam Puoch is expected to continue presenting his defense.
