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Thread: Sierra Leone

  1. #1
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Sierra Leone

    Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Hon. Franklyn Bai Kargbo, on May 2nd 2014, told the United Nations Committee against Torture that Sierra Leone will shortly abolish the death penalty.

    Addressing a public hearing session of the Committee in Geneva, Mr. Kargbo said that his office has received firm instructions from President Ernest Bai Koroma on the issue.

    He also said that the human rights record of the country is good and continues to improve, having regard to the recent history of the country. He further urged that the government of Sierra Leone be commended for making human rights a priority thread that runs right through the Agenda for Prosperity.

    Sierra Leone is among 155 state parties to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The country is therefore required to undergo detailed regular examination of its record before the Committee of ten independent experts in two sessions of at least three hours each.

    Attorney General Hon Franklyn Bai Kargbo Attorney General Hon Franklyn Bai Kargbo Issues raised by the Committee and NGOs include the domestication of the Convention, the death penalty, prolonged pre-trial detention of suspects, prison conditions and shortage of prison staff, corporal punishment, independence of the judiciary and access to justice, juvenile justice system, legal aid, the abortion laws, SGBV, FGM and early marriage. The session, which is webcast, was adjourned to Monday 5 May at 3:00 pm. In the meantime, the Committee commended Sierra Leone for the vast improvement in the reporting to UN treaty bodies.

    Other members of the delegation are Cassandra Labour, Christopher Bockarie and Ambassador Yvette Stevens of the Sierra Leone Mission in Geneva.

    http://www.cocorioko.net/?p=55477
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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Sierra Leone to apply death penalty once again

    Sierra Leone’s Internal Affairs Minister Paolo Conteh has told a local radio in Freetown that the death penalty should be reactivated for people found guilty of murder in order to curb gang violence.

    Sierra Leone still has the death penalty by hanging for those found guilty of murder and treason. But no one has been put to death since 1998.

    “I have given instructions to the prison officers to clean and ready the tools and machines used to kill people, as reckless killing is on the increase. We have lost a lot of people through reckless killing and ended wasting resources feeding such prisoners for several years. This is unacceptable,” the minister told Radio Democracy in the capital Freetown.

    The minister’s comments come in the midst of an increase in gang and political violence in the country.

    Last week, two Sierra Leoneans were sentenced to death by hanging after they were found guilty of murdering a popular radio DJ in Freetown.

    Conteh, who is also a retired major in the country’s military, said the death penalty will scare others who think taking others lives carelessly is justifiable.

    “It’s in the bible, an eye for an eye. Our local people say kill a dog in front of another to know that death is real,” the Minister said.

    http://www.worldbulletin.net/africa/...lty-once-again
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    'The gallows are ready': Sierra Leone reconsiders death penalty

    For almost 20 years, Sierra Leone has avoided using the death penalty. But spurred by public outrage over ritual murders and gang violence, the government is moving once again to hang offenders.

    The legal community believes one sensational case in particular has driven the government to consider resorting again to capital punishment, a case they say was marred by police incompetence and a poorly handled trial.

    On the last night of his life in May 2015, a slight young musician known as DJ Clef played a raucous set at the home of a faith healer known for his high-society connections and the tattooed faces of demons covering his body.

    Clef -- born Sydney David Buckle -- was later found, with his organs and genitals missing, by the road leading to a military cemetery on the outskirts of the capital, Freetown.

    His death sickened a country where a civil war and more recently Ebola have ravaged society and the economy, firing up a huge Freetown fan base who adored his laid-back demeanour and Afrobeat mixes.

    A drive for swift justice was led by Milton Coker, the president of the All Stars music collective to which Clef belonged.

    "People who kill should be killed," Coker said flatly in a recent interview with AFP. "It will deter others."

    Baimba Moi Foray, an influential "ju-ju man", or witch doctor, and an accomplice were duly convicted of his murder and sentenced to hang for their crimes in September.

    If an appeal is unsuccessful, they could become the first since 1998 to face the gallows.

    - Bungled case? -

    Death row lawyer Simitie Lavaly told AFP that because of the media buzz around the celebrities involved, police felt pressure to find a perpetrator fast, and bungled the case.

    "The police did not do a thorough job and the only reason why they are convicted is the media around the case," she told AFP.

    Lurid local stories speculated over Foray's methods and the fate of Buckle's body parts, heightened by the witch doctor's alleged connections to influential figures in Sierra Leone and even an African president.

    "It was a prejudiced judge and jury," Lavaly said, who were presented with "hardly any" substantial evidence.

    Despite such claims, senior officials say a new bill is already being drafted to harden up the current legislation on violent crime, spurred by a wave of popular support.

    Interior Minister Palo Conteh did not pull his punches in a recent interview with AFP.

    "I've instructed the Director General of the Male Correctional Facility to ensure that the gallows are oiled, cleaned and ready to be used," Conteh said.

    "We have not been executing convicts due to a presidential moratorium but considering the increased lawlessness and violence in society we have to kill as prescribed by law," Conteh added.

    - Root causes -

    Rights groups say the government's populist turn avoids tackling the root problems that fuel violence in Sierra Leone: poverty, unemployment and corruption.

    A 2004 truth and reconciliation commission said the central cause of Sierra Leone's horrific 1991-2002 civil war was "endemic greed, corruption and nepotism that deprived the nation of its dignity and reduced most people into a state of poverty."

    The commission recommended abolishing the death penalty as an "important and symbolic departure from the past", as successive governments abused capital punishment to target their enemies.

    More recently, Ebola ravaged the fragile nation's health system but also wrecked its economy, leaving many young people jobless, homeless and fending for themselves.

    The US State Department has monitored a "steady increase in the number of gangs and cliques in Freetown over the past five years" by unemployed young people who form entourages around local hip-hop artists.

    The gangs "increased criminality and anti-social behaviour", including murders, make the pages of Sierra Leone's newspapers every day.

    A government decision to ban motorbike taxis in downtown Freetown in May removed a rare source of casual work to the the city's youth.

    "Governments are often relying on the death penalty rather than doing the very hard work of working out the causes of crime," said Amnesty International's West Africa Researcher Sabrina Mahtani.

    "A lot of public opinion is based on very erroneous beliefs around the death penalty," she added. "People believe the death penalty is a deterrent -- it's not," Mahtani added.

    For now, there are only a handful of people on death row in Sierra Leone. Presidential pardons have seen the vast majority of death sentences commuted to life in prison.

    But the public no longer seemed to be behind moves to repeal the death penalty, said Attorney General and Minister of Justice Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, adding it was "high time" to reconfigure the way Sierra Leone dealt with violent crime.

    "One thing that strikes deep in my heart is the escalation of the murder rate," he said. "Every other day a murder file will come across my desk and that is a real serious concern."

    http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/w...article/479019

  4. #4
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Sierra Leone government moves to abolish death penalty

    By Saidu Bah
    AFP

    Sierra Leone's government will move to abolish the death penalty in the West African state, deputy justice minister Umaru Napoleon Koroma said on Wednesday.

    No execution has taken place in the country since 1998, and death penalties are often commuted.

    Sierra Leone, which is still recovering after decades of civil war, has frequently come under fire from rights groups for keeping capital punishment on the books.

    "Once the legislation goes to parliament and gets approved, that ends the story of the death penalty," Koroma told AFP.

    He added that the cabinet of President Julius Maada Bio had decided to push to abolish capital punishment in order to "uphold the fundamental human rights of Sierra Leoneans".

    The date of the cabinet's decision is unclear.

    But the government announced the move on Wednesday during a review of Sierra Leone's human rights record at the United Nations, Koroma said.

    The European Union's ambassador to Sierra Leone, Tom Vens, congratulated Bio on the move.

    "We will continue to partner with you in promoting a progressive human rights agenda," he tweeted.

    - Falling executions -

    Sierra Leone's 1991 constitution allows the use of the death penalty for aggravated robbery, murder, treason and mutiny.

    However, the last executions in the country were carried out in 1998, when 24 military officers were put to death after a coup attempt the year before.

    The former British colony was ravaged by a 1991-2002 civil war that claimed 120,000 lives.

    A truth and reconciliation commission set up in 2005 to investigate the brutal conflict recommended abolishing the death penalty, calling it "an affront to civilised society".

    But the authorities resisted immediately abolishing capital punishment, and courts condemned 84 people to death between 2016 and 2020, according to the UN.

    Koroma told AFP that the government would seek to amend the punishments for crimes that currently carry the death penalty, suggesting "life in prison" as an alternative.

    If parliament passes the ban, Sierra Leone will become the latest African country to abolish the death penalty since Chad outlawed it in May.

    According to Amnesty International, 108 countries had completely abolished the death penalty by the end of 2020, while 144 had abolished it in law or in practice.

    Both executions and death penalties also fell across sub-Saharan Africa last year, the rights group said.

    Recorded death sentences fell by six percent, from 325 in 2019 to 305 last year, while executions were down 36 percent, falling from 25 in 2019 to 16 in 2020.

    https://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-...193703012.html
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  5. #5
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Sierra Leonean evangelicals approach death penalty abolition process with caution

    There have been no executions by the death penalty in Sierra Leone since 1998, when 24 army officers accused of an attempted coup were executed.

    Now, Sierra Leone's deputy justice minister Umaru Napoleon Koroma has announced that “once the legislation goes to parliament and gets approved, that ends the story of the death penalty”.

    He explained that they want to abolish it to “uphold the fundamental human rights of Sierra Leoneans”.

    However, although Sierra Leone has not carried out any death sentences for thirteen years, the judiciary has continued to sentence people to the death penalty for aggravated robbery, murder, treason or rebellion.

    According to a memorandum published in March 2021 and produced by the NGO AdvocAid, the Oxford University Death Penalty Research Unit and the UK Death Penalty Project, four people were sentenced in 2018, 21 more in 2019 and, according to Amnesty International, up to 39 in 2020. At the end of 2019 there were 63 people on death row in Sierra Leone, rising to 78 in 2020.

    Pressure from the international community and, above all, NGOs has led to a massive process of abolition of the death penalty in Africa. In 2016, Guinea took this step, joining Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Togo.

    In 2018 it was Burkina Faso. In 2019 Equatorial Guinea announced an abolitionist bill, and in 2020 Chad removed capital punishment from its legal system. This year Malawi declared it unconstitutional.

    As among several sectors of society, within the evangelical sphere in Sierra Leone, abolition is viewed differently.

    Mariama Khai-Fornah, communications officer of the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone (EFSL), an organisation linked to the World Evangelical Alliance, believes that “the religion has robustly agitated against death penalty”.

    “Religious leaders in our society have proven that one of the greatest asset in life is forgiveness, because forgiveness is divine. According to Bible. we are only forgiven when we forgive others their trespasses against us. This awareness has also immensely contributed to the great controversy on whether or not to let people be punished by death for their crimes”, explains Khai-Fornah.

    According to the renowned Sierra Leonean theologian Aiah Foday-Khabenje, “not everyone is keen to have the death penalty repealed”.

    Having recently returned to Sierra Leone after twelve years of service abroad where, among other things, he served as Secretary General of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA), Foday-Khabenje says that “the churches default position is sanctity of life and would not necessarily be keen on the death penalty”.

    Nevertheless, he also admits that he does not “see the church to be as enthusiastic as the NGOs about agitating and actively advocating and calling on the government to repeal the law”.

    “This could be because no one should be killing another person and therefore, the penalty for this is not so much of a concern. In other words, there is a tendency for less sympathy for those who bear the death penalty”, adds Foday-Khabenje.

    He explains that “there could be concern when it is unjustly applied, for example, treasonable offenses, which carry the death penalty, could be scheme against political opponents and kill them unfairly. As a matter of fact, this is the concern for most people who want the law repealed”.

    Beyond theological reflection, the debate on the abolition of the death penalty is fraught with complex details. For some, it is a loophole in the 1991 Constitution and the subsequent civil war that left some 120,000 people dead in the country up to 2002.

    For others, the law is a guarantee of security, and there are those who believe that a de facto abolition, as has been the case in the country since 1998, can be coexisted with.

    “The rise of human rights have reduce the strong hold of death penalty for any crime an individual may commit. One of the reasons why our government sees it futile to punish someone by death is because the person may not have done it intentionally, or it could be attributed to aggravation leading to immediate revenge”, points out Khai-Fornah.

    For Foday-Khabenje, “the law is to deter those who threaten the lives of others”. He recalls the cases of people sentenced to death for aggravated robbery, because in those incidents death penalty "puts an end to incidences of death by armed robbers for a long period of time” Now, those who advocate the death penalty "fear an increase in such incidents”.

    According to Khai-Fornah, “Sierra Leone's judicial system and society sometimes act unfairly towards its people. If we look for one issue to stop death penalty in Sierra Leone, it is that of patriotism. If we value the life of every person, then we can fight this together, is not a matter of enrichment or how much you aquire”.

    Foday-Khabenje warns that abolition might take time, as it happened with “the public order law which tends to limit freedom of speech and was imposed during colonial time. Since independence several regimes promised to repeal it but never did it, until the current government has finally did so and the law has been repealed”.

    “I believe, this is an encouragement to push this government to repeal any other draconian law like the death penalty. Some agreement has been reached to repeal death penalty, however, this has not been effected yet”, he concludes.

    https://evangelicalfocus.com/world/1...s-with-caution
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