Hugo Best: Charles Taylor aided and abetted Sierra Leone war crimes, Hague court finds

The Special Court for Sierra Leone is an independent judicial body set up to "try those who bear greatest responsibility" for the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Sierra Leone after 30 November 1996 during the Sierra Leone Civil War. The court is located in Freetown.

Origin

On 12 June 2000, Sierra Leone's President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah wrote a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan asking the international community to try those responsible for crimes during the conflict. On 10 August 2000, the United Nations Security Council 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 Freetown 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 22 February 2010, the Special Court for Sierra Leone announced the appointment of a new Registrar, Binta Mansaray. Ms. Mansaray had previously served for the as the Deputy Registrar of the Court and as Chief of the Court's Outreach Programme. She is the first Sierra Leonean to hold the post of Registrar.

The current Prosecutor, Brenda Hollis, previously the Principal Trial Attorney in the Charles Taylor case, was appointed by the UNSG and took up her office in February 2010. The Prosecutor and her 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 :

President Nigeria Sierra Leone Austria United States

Name !! Country !! Position !! Appointed !! Term Ends
Jon Kamanda	Sierra Leone	\|	2007	2010
Emmanuel Ayoola	\|	Vice-President	2002	2011
George Gelaga King	\|	Member	2002	2011
Renate Winter	\|	Member	2002	2011
Shireen Avis Fisher	\|	Member	2009	2012

Trial Chamber I judges:

Presiding Judge Sierra Leone Cameroon

Name !! Country !! Position !! Appointed !! Term Ends
Pierre G. Boutet	Canada	\|	2002	2011
Rosolu John Bankole Thompson	\|	Member	2002	2011
	Benjamin Mutanga Itoe	\|	Member	2002	2011

Trial Chamber II judges:

Presiding Judge Samoa United Kingdom Senegal

Name !! Country !! Position !! Appointed !! Term Ends
Julia Sebutinde	Uganda	\|	2005	2011
Richard Lussick	\|	Member	2005	2011
Teresa Doherty	\|	Member	2005	2011
El Hadji Malick Sow	\|	Alternate	2007	2010

Former Judges

Geoffrey Robertson Australia (2002?2007) Raja N. Fernando Sri Lanka (2004?2008)

Indictees

The Statute of the Special Court for Sierra Leone outlines four different types of crimes with which the Court can charge individuals. They are crimes against humanity, violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and of Additional Protocol II (war crimes), other serious violations of international humanitarian law, and crimes under Sierra Leonean law. 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. Thus far, 13 individuals have been indicted on charges of committing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other violations of international humanitarian law. No individuals have been charged with crimes under Sierra Leonean law.

Eleven people have been detained by the court, two of whom have died before they could be sentenced. Of the remaining nine, eight have been sentenced and sent to Rwanda to serve their sentences. Five indictees are currently on trial and one convicted indictee has not yet been sentenced. Also, one indictee died while he was a fugitive, and an additional indictee's whereabouts are unknown and he is presumed to be either at large or executed by order of Charles Taylor. Additionally, eight individuals have been charged with contempt of court (as well as two individual already serving sentences issued by the court), four of whom were convicted and sentenced, one of whom was acquitted, one of whom has been convicted but will not be sentenced until the trial of his co-defendants ends and two of whom are currently on trial.

The SCSL has indicted 21 individuals. Five individuals are currently on trial (two of whom are serving sentences from prior convictions), one has been acquitted, eight have been convicted and are serving sentences (including two who are currently on trial on additional counts), one has been convicted but has yet to be sentenced and four individuals have completed their sentences. Proceedings against three individuals were terminated following their death, and one individual is a fugitive, although he has been reported to have been killed.

Overview

The list below details the counts against each individual indicted in the Tribunal and his or her current status. The column titled CAH lists the number of counts (if any) of crimes against humanity with which an individual has been charged. WC the number of counts of war crimes, VIHL the number of counts of violations of international humanitarian law, CSL the number of counts of crimes under Sierra Leonean law, and C/M the number of counts of contempt of the Court or misconduct. Note that these are the counts with which an individual was indicted, not convicted.

{|class="wikitable sortable" border="1" style="text-align:left" |- style="font-size:90%" ! Name ! Indicted ! ! ! ! ! ! Transferredto the SCSL ! Current status ! class="unsortable" | Indictment(s) |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 9 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#C0C0C0" | | Died on ; proceedings terminated on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 50 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 40 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 3 | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 45 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#C0C0C0" | | Fugitive; reported to have died in 2003| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 5 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Died on ; proceedings terminated on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Died on ; proceedings terminated on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 52 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 5 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 5 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Trial began on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 8 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 25 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 5 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 15 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 5 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 20 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 7 | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | style="background:#00FF00" | | Serving sentence of 50 years' imprisonment in Rwanda| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Acquitted on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Completed sentence of year's probation on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Completed sentence of year's probation on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Completed sentence of year's probation on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 1 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Completed sentence of year's probation on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Trial began on | align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 2 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Trial began on Kargbo entered a guilty plea and was convicted shortly after the trial began. Karbo will not be sentenced until after the trial of his four co-defendants is concluded.| align="center" | |- style="font-size:90%" | | | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#C0C0C0" | ? | align="center" style="background:#FFCCCC" | 9 | style="background:#90EE90" | Appeared voluntarily | Trial began on | align="center" | |-class="sortbottom" | colspan="10" style="font-size:90%; background: #F2F2F2" | NotesWhile serving their prison sentences, an additional indictment was filed against Brima Kamara and Santigie Kanu; their current trial began on 15 July 2011.|}

Civil Defence Forces (CDF)

Three of the indictees were leaders of the Civil Defence Forces (CDF), i.e. Allieu Kondewa, Moinina Fofana, and former Interior Minister Samuel Hinga Norman. 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 Front (RUF) were indicted: Foday Sankoh, Sam Bockarie, Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao. 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 Council (AFRC): Alex Tamba Brima (also known as Gullit), Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu (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 Koroma, 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 Liberia, Charles Taylor, who was heavily involved with the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone. Taylor was originally indicted in 2003, but he was given asylum in Nigeria 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 Nations Mission to Sierra Leone UNAMSIL having considerably reduced its presence. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1688 of 17 June 2006 allowed the Special Court to transfer Taylor's case to The Hague, Netherlands, where the physical plant of the International Criminal Court 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 Defense began their case on 13 July 2009 and rested on 12 November 2010. The Trial Chamber is currently considering its verdict.

Judgments

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 terrorism; collective punishments; extermination; murder ? a crime against humanity; murder ? a war crime; rape; outrages upon personal dignity; physical violence ? a war crime; conscripting or enlisting children under the age of 15 years into armed forces or groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities; enslavement; and pillage. They were found not guilty of three counts: sexual slavery and any other form of sexual violence; other inhumane act ? forced marriage; 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 law.

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.

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 RUF defendants were handed down. Issa Sesay and Morris Kallon were each found guilty on 16 of the 18 counts on which they had been charged. Augustine Gbao 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 marriage. 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 were appealed and, on October 26, 2009, the Appeals Chamber handed down an opinion denying that appeal.

Hugo Best

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Charles Taylor aided and abetted Sierra Leone war crimes, Hague court finds