My Interview with the High Court Registrat

By Anrite, Extern, Defence for Children

Upon helping Rebecca King – a Canadian Law Student on her research, though being with her for a very short time, I was privileged to be involved in an interview with a registrar of the High Court who has been there for twenty eight years.  In his interview, he gave a justification for the slow progress of the law with regards to victims' cases.

He said that when the case is committed, it has to be processed before it is called upon in the High Court.  It goes through the Law Officers’ Department for scrutiny to validate and set a date.  There are usually tons of cases already awaiting trial.  The judges have to take written report of proceedings.  Sometimes also, the surety for the accused person gives wrong address upon securing bail.  Even the accused gives wrong address at times thereby making tracing a problem.  The victims may appear but there is no lawyer to prosecute the matter.  With no legal advise, they may tend to make wrong pleadings.  The victim may be absent, the witnesses may be absent and sometimes even the police officer who should serve as witness are absent.  In such situations, the court will order a subpoena but this is no good if the accused or the victim cannot be reached.  Furthermore, judges are not around all the time as they may be in conferences, vacations, on medical and few absences are as a result of personal reasons.  In addition, the court operates like a school of some sort in the sense that the court goes on vacation at different times of the year.  During this period, no court employee will be actively on duty and the judges are no exception.  He added that if all the parties – victims, accused, police officers and lawyers are present, the case will be dealt with in a timely manner.  

But is this ever the case?  And is the system improving or otherwise?  These I believe are questions that are deeply rooted in our justice system?

Legal Education in Prison

By Hawanatu Kamara, Extern at AdvocAid

I’m a legal extern working for AdvocAid which is an organisation advocating for women and children in conflict with the law.  As part of my job, I conduct legal education sessions in police station, prisons and schools.

During one of these sessions, I visited the Pademba Road Prisons and spoke to the remand prisoners. I went with a fellow extern and we interviewed the prisoners together.  During the interview it came to our knowledge that some of the prisoners have been there for four to five years and their cases have never been called, heard or tried.

In addition, most of them were remanded in the first place because they did not fully understand the legal process and court proceedings while their cases are being tried. Those without legal representation said they were not even asked questions or allowed to talk while they were in court.    According to the Criminal Procedure Act 1965 sections 15 and 97 and the Sierra Leone Constitution page 12 and the Fundamental Human Rights, an accused person have a right to a fair trial.  They also state that an accused person must be tried in a language in which he understands and he must be allowed to explain and give facts about his case if he or she cannot afford a lawyer.

However, though they were disgruntled about this, the prisoners were a lot more cheerful and cooperative than we had expected.  They listened, asked questions and answered ours in return.  We talked about bail, arrest, court proceedings and life in prison.

Before this time, my opinion was that a prison is a very discouraging and depressing place to be without any good thing to look up to but after this visit, I realised that this is not the case.

My Experience at LAWYERS

By Wilbri John, Extern at LAWYERS

Working at LAWYERS has proved fruitful for me.  There are certain experiences I would not have had the opportunity to come in contact with except until my call to the bar.  LAWYERS deals with victims and the only opportunity I have to meet women in conflict with the law is through the legal education conducted in prisons. 

One of the cases I was involved in was a domestic violence case which resulted to grievous bodily harm.  The victim was a six year old girl who was beaten by her aunt with a stick on her back.  She later tied both her hands with a rope and used the same stick to hit both hands.  Both her hands were broken and she sustained several blood clots to the extent that she had to undergo surgery.  She cannot use both hands and she is going through a lot of pain.  The aunt is currently in custody in one of the rural areas of Freetown and is to be transferred to the Female Prisons where she will be held awaiting trial.  The matter is to be charged to court as soon as she arrives.

My challenge when I met this girl was not to break down but to remain professional and try to convince her to talk to me and to get her to trust me.  It is extremely difficult not to take such cases personal.

Are Some More Equal Than Others in the Justice System?

Are Some More Equal Than Others in the Justice System?

By Alimamy Koroma, Extern at AdvocAid

The people of Sierra Leone with the help of the international community have been working relentlessly since the end of the brutal civil war in 2002 to strengthen the country’s machinery of justice. This is undoubtedly due to the realization that to a large extent it was the shameful decadence of this very system in the first place  that caused the civil war whose unspeakable consequences in terms of  loss of lives and properties would remain a dark chapter in the annals of our history for a very long time.

One should therefore be forgiven to expect the government to compliment the efforts of the people by taking every necessary step to ensure that the legal system is efficient not only when the accused is a poor and unconnected nobody but also when the rights to defend are those of the poor if not for anything but because that is what justice demands. The issue I would now like to explore is whether our legal system applies the same rule to the rich and poor or whether as some have suggested  our legal system draws inspiration from George Orwell’s animal farm, upholding the view that although all people are equal some are more equal than others?

I can already hear some readers screaming that equality before the law is simply an illusion that died with its foremost proponent A.V Dicey. I am a pragmatist myself and I have heard of inequality in the legal system of even western countries.  But when a legal system automatically loses files, concocts all sorts of excuses for adjournments and begins to get calls from politicians once the man in the dock /is a rich and connected somebody, are we not going a bit far? Is this not taking us back to pre-war Sierra Leone, where justice was a kingdom only known to the rich and powerful? I simply ask and these questions are not meant in any way to undermine the fantastic job done by the greater majority within the justice machinery who work very hard usually in challenging circumstances to ensure fairness in our courts. On the contrary, I expect these questions to stimulate a healthy debate among government officials, NGO’s, legal practitioners, students, youths and every Sierra Leonean for that matter  so as to explore ways in which we can improve our machinery of justice. This is because it is only when we are sure that the poor and the rich can get justice in this country can we be fully satisfied that never again will we suffer from the scourges of war.