The
Special Court for Sierra Leone is an independent judicial body set up to "try those who bear greatest responsibility" for the
war crime.War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war"; including "murder, the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory to slave labor camps", "the murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war", the killing of hostages, "the wanton destruction of cities, towns...
s and crimes against humanity committed in
Sierra LeoneSierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea in the north, Liberia in the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has a population estimated at 6.4 million...
after 30 November 1996 during the
Sierra Leone Civil WarThe Sierra Leone Civil War began in 1991, by the Revolutionary United Front under Foday Sankoh. Tens of thousands died and more than 2 million people were displaced because of the 11-year conflict. Neighbouring countries became host to significant numbers of refugees attempting to escape the...
. The court is located in
FreetownFreetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country and with a population of 1,070,200. The city is the economic and financial center of Sierra Leone...
.
Origin
On 12 June 2000, Sierra Leone's President
Ahmad Tejan KabbahAlhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, serving from 1996 to 1997 and from 1998 to 2007. He worked for the United Nations Development Programme and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992...
wrote a letter to
United Nations Secretary-GeneralThe Secretary-General of the United Nations, acronym UNSYG, is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General also acts as the de facto spokesperson and leader of the United Nations....
Kofi AnnanKofi Atta Annan, Honorary GCMG is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1 January 1997 to 1 January 2007. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.-Early years and family:Kofi Annan was born in the...
asking the international community to try those responsible for crimes during the conflict. On 14 August 2000, the
United Nations Security CouncilThe United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
adopted Resolution 1315 requesting the Secretary-General to start negotiations with the Sierra Leonean government to create a Special Court.
On 16 January 2002, the UN and Government of Sierra Leone signed an agreement establishing the Court. The contract was awarded to Sierra Construction Systems, the largest construction company in Sierra Leone. The first staff members arrived in
FreetownFreetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country and with a population of 1,070,200. The city is the economic and financial center of Sierra Leone...
in July 2002.
Structure
The Special Court consists of four separate institutions: the Registry, the Prosecutor, the Chambers and the Defense Office. The Registry is responsible for the overall management of the Court, and includes the Defence Office. The Defence Office provides support to the defence lawyers hired to defend the accused persons.
On Friday, 20 July 2007, the Special Court for Sierra Leone announced the appointments of a new Registrar and Deputy Registrar. The Court’s new Registrar, Mr. Herman von Hebel, served as Deputy Registrar of the Court from July 2006 until March 2007, when he was named Acting Registrar.
Succeeding Mr. von Hebel as Deputy Registrar is Binta Mansaray. Ms. Mansaray had served for the previous four years as the Special Court’s Outreach Coordinator. She is the first Sierra Leonean to hold the post of Deputy Registrar.
The current Prosecutor,
Stephen RappStephen J. Rapp is an American lawyer and has been the Chief Prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone since December 2006.-Career:...
, former
United States AttorneyUnited States Attorneys represent the United States federal government in United States district court and United States court of appeals. There are 93 U.S. Attorneys stationed throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands...
for the Northern District of Iowa, was appointed by the UNSG and took up his office in January 2007. The Prosecutor and his team investigate crimes, gather evidence and submit indictments to the judges. The Deputy Prosecutor is Joseph Kamara, a national of Sierra Leone, nominated by that government and appointed by the Secretary General. Mr. Kamara took up his post on 15 August 2008.
The Chambers
There are currently twelve judges, of which seven are Trial Judges (5 UN appointed (including one alternate) and two nominated by the Sierra Leone government). The remaining five are Appeals Judges, three of which were appointed by the UN and two nominated by the Sierra Leone government. . Judges are appointed for a term of three years. They can be re-appointed.
Appeals Chamber :
| Name | Country | Position | Appointed | Term Ends |
|---|
| Renate Winter |
Austria AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
|
President |
2002 |
2008 |
| Jon Kamanda |
Sierra Leone Sierra LeoneSierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea in the north, Liberia in the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has a population estimated at 6.4 million...
|
Vice-President |
2007 |
2010 |
| George Gelaga King Justice George Gelaga King of Sierra Leone has been elected Presiding Judge of the Appeals Chamber, a post which makes him President of the Special Court for Sierra Leone for a period of one year....
|
Sierra Leone Sierra LeoneSierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea in the north, Liberia in the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has a population estimated at 6.4 million...
|
Member |
2002 |
2008 |
| Emmanuel Ayoola Emmanuel Olayinka Ayoola is a Nigerian lawyer and judge who became Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission in 2005. He is also a judge of the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone.-Early years:...
|
Nigeria NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
|
Member |
2002 |
2008 |
| Shireen Avis Fisher |
United States United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
|
Member |
2009 |
2012 |
Trial Chamber I judges:
| Name | Country | Position | Appointed | Term Ends |
|---|
| Pierre G. Boutet |
Canada CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
|
Presiding Judge |
2002 |
2008 |
| Rosolu John Bankole Thompson |
Sierra Leone Sierra LeoneSierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea in the north, Liberia in the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean in the southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has a population estimated at 6.4 million...
|
Member |
2002 |
2008 |
| Benjamin Mutanga Itoe |
Cameroon CameroonThe Republic of Cameroon is a unitary republic of central and western Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the Bight of...
|
Member |
2002 |
2008 |
Trial Chamber II judges:
| Name | Country | Position | Appointed | Term Ends |
|---|
| Teresa Doherty |
United Kingdom United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
|
Presiding Judge |
2005 |
2008 |
| Richard Lussick |
Samoa SamoaSamoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa , is a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and Savai'i...
|
Member |
2005 |
2008 |
| Julia Sebutinde |
Uganda UgandaThe Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania...
|
Member |
2005 |
2008 |
| El Hadji Malick Sow |
Senegal SenegalSenegal , officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Senegal is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Mauritania to the north, Mali to the east, and Guinea and Guinea-Bissau to the south, and it also encircles The Gambia on its three sides,...
|
Alternate |
2007 |
2010 |
Former Judges
- Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Ronald Robertson QC is an Australian born human rights lawyer, academic, author and broadcaster. He holds dual Australian and British citizenship....
United Kingdom United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
(2002–2007)
- Raja N. Fernando Sri Lanka Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka , officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka , is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India...
(2004–2008)
Indictees
On 7 March 2003 the first indictments were brought. Thirteen people have been indicted so far for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other violations of
international humanitarian lawInternational humanitarian law , often referred to as the laws of war, the laws and customs of war or the law of armed conflict, is the legal corpus "comprised of the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions, as well as subsequent treaties, case law, and customary international law." It defines...
. However, three indictments were dropped later on because of the deaths of the indictees. Of the ten remaining indictees, nine are in the custody of the Special Court.
If found guilty, criminals may be sentenced to prison or have their property confiscated. The Court, as with all other tribunals established by the United Nations, does not have the power to impose the death penalty.
Although the indictees are individually charged, the trials have been placed into four groups.
Civil Defence Forces (CDF)
Three of the indictees were leaders of the
Civil Defence ForcesThe Civil Defense Forces or CDF were a paramilitary organization who fought in the Sierra Leone Civil War . They supported the elected government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah against the rebel groups RUF and AFRC . Much of the CDF was made up of the Kamajors group, which is part of the larger Mende...
(CDF), i.e.
Allieu KondewaAllieu Kondewa is a former traditional doctor in the Kamajors tribe and military commander of the Civil Defence Forces in Sierra Leone. He was born in the Bo District and lived served until his arrest and subsequent trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone....
,
Moinina FofanaMoinina Fofana is a Sierra Leonean former military commander who was the leading general in the Kamajors militia and director of the Civil Defence Forces during the Sierra Leone Civil War...
, and former Interior Minister
Samuel Hinga NormanSamuel Hinga Norman was a Sierra Leonean politician from the Mende tribe. He was the founder and leader of the traditional Civil Defence Forces, commonly known as the Kamajors...
. Their trial started on 3 June 2004 and concluded with closing arguments in September 2006. Norman died in custody on 22 February 2007 before judgement after having undergone a surgical procedure in Dakar, Senegal. The trial proceedings against him were accordingly
terminated.
Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
Five leaders of the
Revolutionary United FrontThe Revolutionary United Front was a rebel army that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later developed into a political party, which existed until 2007...
(RUF) were indicted:
Foday SankohFoday Saybana Sankoh was the leader and founder of the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front in the 10-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002...
,
Sam BockarieSam "Mosquito" Bockarie was a leading member of the Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone. Bockarie was infamous during the Sierra Leone Civil War for his brutal tactics, which included amputation, mutilation, and rape. He earned the nickname "Mosquito" for his ability to attack when his...
, Issa Hassan Sesay,
Morris KallonMorris Kallon also known as Bilai Karim is a former Sierra Leonean rebel military commander in the Revolutionary United Front. In February 2009, he was convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone on 16 of the 18 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes he was tried for.-Sources:* ...
and
Augustine GbaoAugustine Gbao also known as Augustine Bao is a former Sierra Leonean paramilitary commander. In February 2009, he was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He was a senior commander in the Revolutionary United Front from 1991 until his capture...
. The charges against Sankoh and Bockarie were dropped after their deaths were officially ascertained. The trial for Kallon, Gbao and Sesay began on 5 July 2004. It concluded on 24 June 2008. Final oral arguments were conducted on 4 and 5 August 2008.
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC)
Three of the detained indictees belonged to the
Armed Forces Revolutionary CouncilThe Armed Forces Revolutionary Council was a group of Sierra Leone soldiers that allied itself with the rebel Revolutionary United Front in the late 1990s. While the AFRC briefly controlled the country in 1998, it was driven from the capital by a coalition of West African troops...
(AFRC):
Alex Tamba BrimaAlex Tamba Brima is a former Sierra Leonean military commander. He was one of a group of seventeen soldiers in the Sierra Leone Armed Forces who called themselves Armed Forces Revolutionary Council that succefully stage a coup that ousted president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997...
(also known as Gullit),
Brima Bazzy KamaraBrima Bazzy Kamara was a commander of the soldiers of the Sierra Leonean Armed Forces Revolutionary Council and in 2007 was convicted of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Sierra Leone Civil War....
and
Santigie Borbor KanuSantigie Borbor Kanu was a Sierra Leonean military commander in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council . He was one of a group of seventeen soldiers in the military of Sierra Leone that succefully staged a coup that ousted president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in May 1997...
(also known as Five-Five). Their trial began on 7 March 2005.
The only indicted person who is not detained, and whose whereabouts remain uncertain, is the former dictator and AFRC chairman
Johnny Paul KoromaJohnny Paul Koroma was the Head of State of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998.-Youth and Education :...
, who seized power in a military coup on 25 May, 1997. He was widely reported to have been killed in June 2003, but as definitive evidence of his death has never been provided his indictment has not been dropped.
Charles Taylor
In a category on his own is the former President of
LiberiaLiberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, and the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2008 Census, the nation is home to 3,476,608 people and covers ....
, Charles Taylor, who was heavily involved with the civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Taylor was
originally indicted in 2003, but he was given asylum in
NigeriaNigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger...
after fleeing Liberia.
In March 2006, Taylor fled from house arrest in Nigeria and was arrested at the border in a car full of cash. Taylor was extradited to the Special Court following a request to this effect by the Liberian Government. He was immediately turned over to the Special Court for trial.
Because Taylor still enjoyed considerable support in Liberia, and the region was not entirely stable, his trial in Freetown was deemed undesirable for security reasons, the
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
Mission to Sierra Leone UNAMSIL having considerably reduced its presence.
United Nations Security CouncilThe United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
resolution 1688 of 17 June 2006 allowed the Special Court to transfer Taylor's case to
The HagueThe Hague is the third largest city in the Netherlands after Amsterdam and Rotterdam, with a population of 485,818 and an area of approximately 100 km²...
, Netherlands, where the physical plant of the
International Criminal CourtThe International Criminal Court is a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression .The court came into being on 1 July 2002 — the...
would be used with the trial still being conducted under SCSL auspices. Taylor's
trial started on 4 June 2007, with the first witness appearing 7 January 2008, and it is available in
streaming video. (The trials of the other cases at the SCSL were not available on the Internet because of local Internet limitations. They were available on the SCSL intranet.)
The Prosecution rested its case on 27 February 2009, and the Trial Chamber has scheduled the Defense case to begin on 29 June 2009.
AFRC
On 20 June 2007, the three suspects in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council trial, Brima, Kanu, and Kamara, were each convicted of eleven of 14 counts. These were acts of
terrorismTerrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism...
;
collective punishmentCollective punishment is the punishment of a group of people as a result of the behaviour of one or more other individuals or groups. The punished group may often have no direct association with the other individuals or groups, or direct control over their actions...
s; extermination;
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
– a crime against humanity; murder – a war crime;
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
; outrages upon personal dignity; physical violence – a war crime;
conscripting or enlisting childrenThe military use of children takes three distinct forms: children can take direct part in hostilities , or they can be used in support roles such as porters, spies, messengers, look outs, and sexual slaves; or they can be used for political advantage either as human shields or in...
under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities;
enslavementSlavery is a form of forced labor in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation...
; and pillage. They were found not guilty of three counts:
sexual slaverySexual slavery is the organized coercion of unwilling people into different sexual practices. Sexual slavery may include single-owner sexual slavery, ritual slavery sometimes associated with traditional religious practices, slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes where sex is common, or forced...
and any other form of sexual violence; other inhumane act –
forced marriageForced marriage is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married without his or her consent or against his or her will...
; and other inhumane acts – a crime against humanity.
These were the first judgments from the SCSL, as well as the first time ever that an international court ruled on charges related to child soldiers or forced marriage, and the first time an international court delivered a guilty verdict for the military conscription of children. Therefore this was a landmark decision, by which the Special Court for Sierra Leone has created a major legal precedent in
international criminal lawInternational criminal law is an autonomous branch of law which deals with international crimes and the courts and tribunals set up to adjudicate cases in which persons have incurred international criminal responsibility...
.
On 19 July 2007, Alex Tamba Brima and Santigie Borbor Kanu were sentenced to 50 years in jail, while Brima Kamara was sentenced to 45 years imprisonment. The three are likely to serve their sentences in Europe rather than Sierra Leone due to security concerns.
On 22 February 2008, the Appeals Chamber denied their appeal and reaffirmed the verdicts.
CDF
On 2 August, 2007, the two surviving CDF defendants, Kondewa and Fofana, were convicted of murder, cruel treatment, pillage and collective punishments. Kondewa was further found guilty of use of child soldiers. The CDF trial was perhaps the most controversial as many Sierra Leoneans considered the CDF to be protecting them from the depredations of the RUF.
On 9 October, 2007, the Court decided on the punishment. Kondewa was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, Fofana got six years. These sentences were considered a success for the defence as the prosecutors had asked for 30 years imprisonment for both. The Court imposed a lesser sentence because it saw some mitigating factors. These included the CDF’s efforts to restore Sierra Leone’s democratically elected government which, the Trial Chamber noted, “contributed immensely to re-establishing the rule of law in this Country where criminality, anarchy and lawlessness (...) had become the order of the day”.
On appellate judgements announced on 28 May 2008, the Appeals Chamber overturned convictions of both defendants on the collective punishments charge as well as Kondewa's conviction for the use of child soldiers. However, the Appeals Chamber also entered new convictions against both for murder and inhumane acts as crimes against humanity. The Appeals Chamber also enhanced the sentences against the two, with the result that Fofana will serve 15 years and Kondewa will serve 20 years.
RUF
On 25 February 2009, convictions of each of the three
RUFThe Revolutionary United Front was a rebel army that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later developed into a political party, which existed until 2007...
defendants were handed down.
Issa SesayIssa Hassan Sesay served as senior military officer and commander in the Revolutionary United Front and AFRC/RUF forces in their insurrection against the government of Sierra Leone...
and
Morris KallonMorris Kallon also known as Bilai Karim is a former Sierra Leonean rebel military commander in the Revolutionary United Front. In February 2009, he was convicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone on 16 of the 18 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes he was tried for.-Sources:* ...
were each found guilty on 16 of the 18 counts on which they had been charged.
Augustine GbaoAugustine Gbao also known as Augustine Bao is a former Sierra Leonean paramilitary commander. In February 2009, he was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He was a senior commander in the Revolutionary United Front from 1991 until his capture...
was found guilty of 14 of the 18 charges. Convictions were entered on charges including murder, enlistment of child soldiers, amputation, sexual slavery and
forced marriageForced marriage is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties is married without his or her consent or against his or her will...
. The three were all convicted on charges of forced marriage, the first such convictions ever handed down in an international criminal court. All three had pleaded not guilty and shook their heads as the judgment was read.
Sentences were handed down on 8 April 2009. Sesay received 52 years, Kallon 40 years and Gbao 25 years. The convictions and sentences can be appealed.
See also
- Ishmael Beah
Ishmael Beah is a former Sierra Leonean child soldier, and the author of the memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.-Early years:...
, a child soldier from Sierra Leone who has written a memoir of his experiences.
- International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , or the Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda , is an international court established in November 1994 by the United Nations Security Council in order to judge people responsible for the Rwandan genocide and other serious violations of the...
- Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project (RULAC)
The or is an initiative of the to support the application and implementation of international law in armed conflict...
External links
- Official site for the Special Court
- Justice in Motion: The Trial Phase of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto,...
, November 2005
- Independent Interim Monitoring Reports of the Trials from 9/2004 to 11/2006, UC Berkeley War Crimes Study Center, November 2006
- Punishment and forgiveness in Sierra Leone, The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In about the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a left-liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-History:The...
, November 3, 2002