A South African digital forensic expert testified in a Juba court on Friday, presenting electronic evidence that prosecutors claim ties suspended First Vice President Riek Machar and seven co-accused to the alleged procurement of arms linked to the deadly Nasir garrison attack in March 2025.

Ratlhogo Peter Calvin, a 47-year-old investigator, detailed his technical examination of digital materials during the 45th session of the high-profile trial at Freedom Hall.

Led by prosecutor Gabriel Mading, the testimony focused on data extracted from devices belonging to the defendants. Calvin explained that on June 25, 2025, while in South Africa, he received a sealed diplomatic bag from lead investigator Major General Basilio Thomas Wani and other witnesses.

The bag—secured with a special diplomatic lock and serial number—contained smartphones, SIM cards, memory sticks, laptops, and a letter from South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting forensic analysis by a private firm.

He described creating forensic images (“copying the brain”) of the devices and analyzing them using 40 keywords supplied by Wani. The extracted content included WhatsApp messages, photos, videos, GPS data, and other records.

“My findings demonstrated a clear pattern of arms procurement and logistics, the flow of operational intelligence, a coordinated militia strategy, and the sharing of real-time documents with certain international actors,” Calvin told the court.

After concluding his work, he prepared a report authenticated by South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation and the South Sudanese embassy in Pretoria.

The devices were resealed in a diplomatic bag and returned to Juba, where Calvin personally delivered his final report to Wani on August 28, 2025, in the presence of investigative committee members.

Machar and the co-accused face grave charges including murder, conspiracy, terrorism, treason, destruction of public property, and crimes against humanity.

Prosecutors allege that SPLA-IO forces, allied with the White Army, killed 257 SSPDF soldiers—including commander General David Majur Dak—and looted or destroyed military assets worth about $58 million during the March 2025 assault on the Nasir base.

The trial unfolds against a backdrop of diplomatic maneuvering: Documents reveal that in a confidential May 12, 2025, letter, South Sudan’s government requested U.S. support for prosecuting Machar—along with lifting sanctions on former Vice President Benjamin Bol Mel—shortly after agreeing to accept third-country deportees from the United States.

Details of any U.S. response remain unclear.

The case has heightened political tensions in South Sudan, with Machar’s supporters dismissing the charges as politically motivated amid fragile implementation of the peace agreement.