The governor of a province in South Sudan apologized to Verzilov and Varlamov for the detention

The governor of the Eastern Equatoria province in South Sudan, Louis Lobong Lohor, apologized to Mediazona publisher Peter Verzilov and blogger Ilya Varlamov for the detention. Verzilov told Mediazona about this.

“One of the heads of the national security service arrived, gave me a phone number and said that the governor of the province would now speak to me, who would bring an official apology from the province and the president of South Sudan,” the publisher said.

According to Verzilov, Lokhor emphasized three times that he apologizes on behalf of the country’s President Salvatore Kiir for the “unfortunate incident.” In addition, he apologized to the Russian guide, who was also detained.

The governor promised that “everything will be investigated,” Verzilov added.

The publisher of Mediazona, Ilya Varlamov, his wife Lyubov Varlamova and the director of the European Gymnasium Ivan Bogdantsev were detained on the afternoon of January 13 in the city of Capoeta because of the drone remote control in the blogger’s luggage. The drone itself was previously seized in Uganda. Local security officials claimed that the Russians could have filmed military installations from a drone. In the evening the detainees were released .

Louis Lobong Lohor is a former brigadier general of the Sudan People's Liberation Army.