A South Sudan activist in the US is charged with trying to illegally export arms for coup back home

PHOENIX (AP) — A leading South Sudanese academic and activist living in exile in the United States has been charged in Arizona along with a Utah man born in the African nation on charges of conspiring to buy and illegally export millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to overthrow the government back home.

Peter Biar Ajak, fled to the U.S. with the help of the American government four years ago after he said South Sudan’s president ordered him abducted or killed. Emergency visas were issued at the time to Ajak, now 40, and his family after they spent weeks in hiding in Kenya. He was most recently living in Maryland.

A federal criminal complaint unsealed Monday in Arizona charges Ajak and Abraham Chol Keech, 44, of Utah, with conspiring to purchase and illegally export through a third country to South Sudan a cache of weapons in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the Export Control Reform Act. The weapons that were considered included automatic rifles like AK-47s, grenade launchers, Stinger missile systems, hand grenades, sniper rifles, ammunition, and other export-controlled arms.

Although the criminal complaint was made public by Justice officials, the case was still not available in the federal government’s online system by Tuesday afternoon so it was unknown if the men had attorneys who could speak to the charges against them.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Violence and rights abuses threaten South Sudan’s stability, a UN report warns </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline