SIERRA LEONE: Out With the Judges,In Comes the People’s Courts

By Lansana Fofana Reprint | | Print |

Lansana Fofana

FREETOWN, Aug 7 1997 (IPS) - Sierra Leone’s military junta has announced the suspension of the country’s judicial court system, which has been replaced with what it refers to as “People’s Revolutionary Courts” nationwide.

Major Johnny Paul Koroma, chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) said in an annoucement earlier this week that the new system had been put in place, because his government had received no cooperation from the country’s lawyers and judges.

“The AFRC considers it rather regrettable that the Bar Association is adopting a non-cooperative attitude… and (the AFRC) has therefore decided to establish the People’s Revolutionary Courts in each district and provincial centre in the country,” Koroma said.

Members of Sierra Leone’s judiciary have not reported to the courts in support of a nationwide civil defiance campaign that has been going on since the May 25 coup that ousted the civilian government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

Courts also are short of personnel, since, according to judicial sources, more than 70 percent of the members of the bar and the bench fled the country in the wake of the coup.

“You cannot expect lawyers and judges to return when the prisons were broken open and more than 500 convicts and hardened criminals were set free by the coup leaders and are now prowling the streets,” said Sam Conteh, a legal expert here.

“Armed robbery is now a common phenomenon, because the criminals were released en masse and there is no way to recapture them,” said Mohamed Koroma, Secretary General of Prison Watch, a local non-governmental group.

“Even the AFRC chairman (Major Koroma) was a prisoner who benefitted from the jail break,” he added. Prison Watch monitors conditions in the country’s prisons and detention centres.

Many lawyers and judges have gone underground within the country. Koroma pointed out that they are afraid that the criminals, whom they had convicted and are now well armed, may seize the opportunity to torment them.

One woman magistrate was reportedly raped by released convicts following the coup, and a High Court judge’s home was looted by armed robbers.

Under the AFRC’s new judicial arrangement, the People’s Revolutionary Courts shall be presided over by a panel of five assessors, including a paramount chief.

“These courts shall have the power to try all civil and criminal cases, except for murder, manslaughter, treason and identical criminal offences that may carry the mandatory death penalty,” the AFRC chairman said.

He added that the courts’ power to impose fines and sentences shall be identical to those of the High Court. “They shall not be kangaroo courts,” Major Koroma said.

But Sierra Leoneans interviewed here do not believe him. The leadership of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), which favours kangaroo courts, is behind the suspension of the judicial system, some political analysts said. The officers within the government army who staged the coup have joined forces with the RUF in the new government.

“We now see clearly that the RUF is calling the tune and is providing the warped ideology for the AFRC/RUF rebel alliance. This cannot work in this modern day,” said Samuel Sesay, a political scientist at the University of Sierra Leone. Sesay was referring to the RUF’s reverence for the ‘Green Book’ socialist philosophy espoused by the Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi.

Most of the RUF rebels, political cadre and its leader, Corporal Foday Sankoh, received their initial military training in Libya.

During its six-year insurgency, the RUF was known for its “court” system, which was used to arbitrarily punish or execute perceived enemies.

“The RUF used these so-called ‘People’s Courts’ to eliminate opponents within the movement,” said Sam Kanja, a human rights activist here. “And, now that they (RUF) sort of control the AFRC, they may ensure that such an obnoxious system is introduced.”