By Umaru Fofana
The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) say they have found “high numbers of non-indicted trial inmates” in some of the country’s prisons.
In a meeting with the Chief Justice, Desmond Babatunde Edwards and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Easmon Ngakui, the human rights commissioners cited one inmate, Dauda Kaiwo, who has spent over 11years at the Kenema Correctional Centre without indictment.
They say there are fewer State Counsels in the provinces “to provide legal opinion on huge backlog cases and the prosecution and conviction for petty crimes and misdemeanour offences for larceny, loitering, frequenting places and some for breach of contractual agreements”.
According a press release from the commission, the commissioners engaged the two officials of the judiciary to brief them on their findings from their monitoring of the prisons, an exercise that started on 13th May when they held meetings with stakeholders including traditional authorities. They also conducted human rights education in schools.
They said that in Bo, they met a woman called Sia Lebbie who had been convicted and sentenced to a year in prison or to pay a fine of Le 800,000 (a little under $100). They said the woman had already paid Le500,000 yet languished in prison.
They also spoke of a Jonathan Maigbe and a Dennis Allieu who were convicted and sentenced to six months and two years in prison or pay a fine of Le500,000 and Le 200,000 respectively.
The release says the DPP admitted to overcrowding in prison which he said was a concern to all, but explained that his office only played an advisory role on cases brought to court by the police.
Ngakui explained that there were several factors responsible for the lack of indictments for inmates in the regional prisons among them the fact that there were fewer state counsels there.
He said there were plans to recruit 25 state counsels which he hoped would deal with the inadequacies in the provinces.
Meeting with the Chief Justice the commissioners said the lack of a high court sitting in Kailahun had resulted in matters being transferred to Kenema. They also spoke of the lack.
The Chief Justice said the Magistrates had a wide discretion on sentencing: “We have this guideline on bail and sentencing”, adding that they were done with the bail and were left with the sentencing aspect. “We have the new Criminal Procedure Act that will have to deal with that” the chief justice assured.
He said the judiciary would do circuit courts next week in Port Loko, Sefadu (Kono) and Moyamba.
On the issue of jurors, he said he was working with the establishment secretary’s office to get a pool of jurors.
© 2019 Politico Online
