The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that a Harvard University and Cambridge University graduate and an alleged accomplice have been charged with conspiring to export various arms to South Sudan.
Abraham Chol Keech, 44, of Utah, and Peter Beer Ajak, 40, of Maryland, conspired to acquire “millions of dollars worth of fully automatic rifles, grenade launchers, Stinger missiles, federal prosecutors alleged in part, “purchased and illegally exported systems, grenades, sniper rifles, ammunition, and other export-controlled items from the United States to South Sudan.” Department of Justice statement.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents said the pair were involved in an “illicit scheme” to “purchase and export” weapons, “along with others known and unknown.” Similarly, they have conspired to violate U.S. export laws.”suspect jeremy kiser complaint Send the money to the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.united nations imposed an arms embargo on South Sudan South Sudan gained independence in 2011 but was embroiled in civil war in 2013 and has been mired in violence ever since, despite a 2018 peace agreement, ABC News report.
Keech is a U.S. citizen of Sudanese origin who serves as a “coordinator for the South Sudanese rebel group,” according to the complaint. Ajak is a “South Sudanese-born exile” who “currently works as a research fellow at a U.S. university and regularly writes articles on South Sudan's political and economic future.” The six other anonymous individuals named in the indictment are two naturalized American citizens, a lawful permanent resident, a former State Department employee, a former U.S. military member, and a “weapons expert” with a Canadian passport. (Related: Jack Teixeira pleads guilty to leaking classified Pentagon documents)
Ajak is a former child soldier, political prisoner “described as a peace activist,” former World Bank economist, and fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Studies (Semaphore) at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS). report. he won an award in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard University in 2009. and Ph.D. in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Cambridge. The Non-Resident Middle East Initiative Fellow at HKS was scheduled to give a seminar on February 8 titled “Reviving the Spirit of South Sudan.” Published by Harvard University was canceled.
From at least February 2023 to February 2024, Keach and Ajak knowingly “illegally purchased weapons and related export-controlled items from undercover law enforcement officers and “attempted to smuggle weapons and items from the United States into South Sudan through third countries.'' According to the Department of Justice, the purchase and export are illegal. The pair are said to have considered paying bribes with the intention of disguising $4 million worth of weapons as humanitarian aid.
If convicted, the two men could face a combined sentence of up to 50 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.
