By Yien Gattuor.

Adok Payam administrator James Bichiok Gatluak was released on Thursday from SPLA-IO detention after spending three weeks behind bars.

Speaking to The City Review, Tor Thor, the police director in Leer County, Unity State, said the administrator was arrested on 26 November and was released yesterday on Thursday, without charges.

The payam administrator was arrested by an SPLA-IO general for allegedly stopping the workers belonging to the state government and county authority from performing their usual duties at a port in Leer County.

It was reported that the military had asked the civil servants in the area to carry out the activity but the local administrator pleaded innocent.

However, Mr. Bichiok allegedly formed a committee to replace the previous workers deployed by the state revenue authority and county authority.

“For now the payam administrator is out from detention and he is seriously tortured in Rupkong which is the military base headquarters for SPLA-IO  division 4B,” Tor said. The commissioner of Leer County, Stephen Taker Riek said James Bichiok Gatluak’s release followed an order from the First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar