By Abdulai Fasineh Dumbuya
The Head of Media and Communications at Judiciary of Sierra Leone, Elkass Sannoh has said that the 189 no-trace cases found during the Judicial Week will be struck-off.
In an interview with Politico, Sannoh said the cases will be removed from the judicial process, as long as nobody is making any follow-up interest.
He said some people take cases to the court with hidden motive and thereafter refuse to attend proceedings so that bail cannot be granted to the accused persons, saying their intention is to send them to prison and totally abandon them.
He said 23 judges including two high court judges are addressing 802 cases across the country.
On whether the judiciary gives preferential treatment to certain people, he said they handle each and every Sierra Leonean with equal care and treatment, and dispelled claims of preference saying they are not factual and lacked substance.
"We do not have anything called exceptional treatments for politicians. The purpose of this Judicial Week is to increase access to justice, to help decongest the Correctional Centres across the country and to give opportunity to the judiciary to deal with many backlog related cases. There's no fact to effect that we are treating people differently," Sannoh stated.
He said that while it's important to recognize the responsibility of the judiciary in administering equitable justice, he also highlighted the litany of challenges the institution faces which exert immense work load on judges.
"We have 34 magistrates but none of them has private vehicles, less to talk about other challenges they face," he said.
This is the third yearly Judicial Week in which the judiciary under the leadership of Chief Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards is increasing access to justice and decongesting Correctional Centres and as well as clearing backlog cases across the country. This year’s exercise started on the 28th August and ends 8th September 2023.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (06/09/23)
