By Lansana Fofana
FREETOWN, Nov 15 1998 (IPS)

Sierra Leone’s rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, who was sentenced to death by hanging three weeks ago, is defending himself at an appeal hearing that began Friday.

Sankoh defended himself throughout the previous (September/October) trial at a Freetown High Court after local lawyers refused to represent him. Attorney general, Solomon Berewa, said all efforts had failed to get a lawyer from the Sierra Leone Bar Association for the appeal.

“They (lawyers) simply won’t do it for moral reasons, considering the attrocities Sankoh’s rebellion heaped on this country,” he said.

On Oct 23, Sankoh was was found guilty of treason, incitement and crimes against humanity by judge Samuel Ademusu.

The appeal began after fruitless negotiations with foreign- based law firms in Europe and Africa. A British law firm ‘Akainyah and Company’ offered to defend the rebel leader if the Sierra Leonean government agreed to provide return air-tickets for three barristers during their briefing visit, in addition to 1,700 dollars per day, paid hotel accommodation and administrative office space.

Berewa said the government could not meet the demands of the British law firm and similar charges by a group of lawyers from Nigeria.

A former British cabinet minister and member of parliament, Douglas Hogg, volunteered to represent the rebel leader but Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) battlefield commander Sam Bockarie said all such matters must go through the movement’s recognised agent Omrie Golley – a Sierra Leonean dissident in London.

“Whoever wants to defend the leader must go through Omrie Golley because he is the man we entrusted with the responsibility,” Bockarie told reporters this week. He said RUF was ready to pay all legal expenses for the appeal, but that all arragnements should be done through Golley.

Golley, a leading critic of the government of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, is reportedly the person who sells diamonds mined in RUF controlled areas and purchases weapons for the rebels.

Fopr his part, the defiant Sankoh asked the Attorney General’s office to provide him with law books and other materials to help him conduct his own defence.

He said if no one was prepared to represent him, God surely will. “I believe in God and the Almighty will be my defence,” he said.

Sankoh was extradited from Nigeria in July, where he had been in detention for 15 months, on alleggations that he entered that country with illegal arms and ammunition. He was in Nigeria when the military coup of May 25, 1997 took place. The rebel leader then sent a message to his combatants in the bush to join the coup plotters.

After the death sentence was pronounced on Sankoh the mood in Freetown favoured the speedy execution of the rebel leader, and newspapers questioned the need for any appeal.

“Why do we have to waste our time giving him a long trial in the name of fairplay? Is Sankoh more important than those who faced the court martial? The government of Sierra Leone probably does not know that keeping a dangerous man like Sankoh is a security risk,” said the independent ‘Democrat.’

Last month some 24 army officers were executed by firing squad for their role in the coup. More than 30 civilians have also been sentenced to death and are expected to be executed shortly.

The execution was criticised by rights groups, the United Nations and former colonial power, Britain. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he regretted the execution and Britian said the killing would not help the process of reconciliation in the west African country.

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