Twenty-three prisoners held in relation to the Wau events of last December in Western Bahr al-Ghazal state have entered an open hunger strike demanding the authorities to send them for trial.

Kur Alor Kur, the defense lawyer of the detainees, told Radio Tamazuj from Wau that the defendants have spent 6 months in the prison without trial, adding that their defense team had requested the special court of the Wau events, which in turn addressed the general prosecutor to refer the defendants’ files to the court, but prosecutors have not yet done so.

This has prompted the defendants to hunger strike until their files are referred to the court for trial.

“Today, 8 April 2013, the last of the defendants of the December 2012 events in Western Bahr el Ghazal state have entered into an open-ended hunger strike. They are 23 defendants in number. These people have spent more than six month in prisons without being sent to court,” said Kur.

The group of hunger strikers includes the former state Minister of Information Sebit Baptist, former Wau county Commissioner John Peter Miskin and other MPs and civil society activists who had spent about five months in prisons without trial.

“If their cases are referred to the court, the strike will be lifted,” said the advocate.