Machar official pardons controversial Facebooker ‘Mama’ Amira after hospitalization

JUBA – A senior South Sudan opposition official allied to First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny has issued a statement pardoning controversial Facebooker Mama Amira Ali after the later was hospitalized in Juba.

In August, a court in South Sudan’s capital Juba found Amira Ali Thomas guilty of defaming Hon. Nyenagwek Kuol, a former Warrap state information minister, who is now the SPLM-IO nominee for deputy minister of interior of the Reconstituted Transitional Government of National Unity.

The Juba Court sentenced Amira to a six-month probation. The court also fined Amira 35,000,000 South Sudanese Pound (an equivalent of 70 United States Dollars) for damages against Ms. Kuol.

In a statement on Monday, Nyenagwek said she had decided to pardon Amira because of an illness the latter is suffering.

“On date of 21/11/2021, with all my mental strength and a legally considered personality I, Nyenagwek Kuol Mareng, declare pardon on Amira Ali Thomas which was convicted by Juba County Court on 9/8/2021 in the police case number 3104 under the provision of article 289 of South Sudan Penal act 2008,” she said.

“The pardon includes the material compensation that she was sentenced to for moral damage, which is very valuable million South Sudanese pound which Equivalent to $85,000. While preserving the general right of the court as the original authority of the competent court,” she added.

For her part, Amira Ali Thomas welcomed the news.

“I would like to thank Nyanagwek Kuol Mareng but even though thanking her is not enough. Because it is not easy to forgive a person. Yes, it was my mistake and I admitted and I thanked Nyanagwek again for the forgiving heart she has,” Mama Amira said, according to the Eye Radio.

“God says forgive each other, I will forgive you because what you bound on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever is dissolved in the earth will be dissolved in heaven. I was supposed to apologize first but she is the first to initiate this step, and this indicates her good heart. What she did is not only for me but for all mothers so that future generations can learn this lesson about forgiveness,” she added.