Rebecca Anyon Kot, the woman who was allegedly shot dead by a man at a nightclub in Juba in a suspected love triangle, was not married to the jilted lover, a Juba court was told.
Daniel Maker Mading, an uncle to the late Rebecca, told the court that his niece was not officially married by Bobby Longar, the police officer who allegedly shot Rebecca and another man after finding them in a nightclub slightly over three months ago.
Last week, the court heard that Longar fired not less than 10 rounds of shots in the incident that took place at the parking bay of a local hotel; Rebecca was shot four times, according to the autopsy report, while Akech Manut, the man whom Longar accused of sleeping with his wife, was hit five times.
Longar told the court that he did not mean to kill Rebecca, adding that he was only provoked to shoot after Rebecca tried to intervene when he got into an argument with Manut.
But Rebecca’s uncle, in his testimony, told the court the two were never officially married, adding that Longar had not formalised the marriage despite having three children with the late Rebecca.
“I do not know the first accused (Boby Longar Akok) who killed my niece. I only got to know him after the incident,” Mading told Judge Alexander Sabor Subek.
The court also heard that two days before the fateful day, on June 15, the late Rebecca had travelled to Yirol, only to meet her death about five hours after she returned to Juba.
“I don’t know how the late Rebecca met the person who was killed alongside her. I don’t know why Bobby killed both of them,” the uncle (from Rebecca’s mother) told the court.
The shooting incident took place at Bid Bid-Win Hotel on the night of June 15.
“The late Rebecca was a businesswoman. I don’t know what kind of business she was doing. I just heard from her colleagues that she was a businesswoman. She was unmarried, although she had three children with the first accused.
“According to [Dinka] customs and tradition, a man or a woman cannot be considered to be a husband and wife if he did not pay dowry or if the two families did not sit down to discuss the union.
“The late Rebecca was under our responsibility until the moment of her murder.” Rebecca and Longar lived separately from each other. They did not live in the same house and place because he [Boby Longar] is irresponsible,” claimed the uncle.
