By Francis H. Murray
The Sierra Leone Judiciary is set to open a special court on sexual offenses today at the Law Courts Building in Freetown. The court will be used to try all cases of sexual offenses at the level of a High Court.
The special fast-track court is expected to try all sexual offense cases which have gone through preliminary investigations at the Magistrate court and have invoked Section 136 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, which gives high court jurisdiction over a matter.
The court will be presided over by three judges: two Supreme Court judges Justice Glenna Thompson and Justice Alusine Sesay, and Justice Monfred Sesay, a judge with the Court of Appeal.
The opening of the court comes amidst concerns and sometimes outrage at the spate of sexual offenses with the public urging the judiciary to take drastic steps in a bid to speedily try all sexual offense cases and bring culprits to justice.
Campaigners have welcomed the establishment of the special court, saying it is a timely and appropriate measure to stem the widespread spate of sexual offenses.
The Executive Director of the Rainbow Initiative, a non-governmental organisation that gives medical and psychosocial support to victims of sexual offenses, expressed excitement at the new development, referring to it as something they have been advocating for in the fight against sexual offenses. Daniel Kettor said the move was to ensuring that victims get justice.
“We’re very excited because it’s something we have been advocating for on behalf of the survivors to ensure that they are able to get justice” he said, adding that with this new court focusing on sexual offenses, victims would get justice and perpetrators would know there would be consequences for their action.
“We think that the President, according to his last declaration of the State of Emergency, has been able to fulfil that…So we’re very excited as an organisation,’’ Kettor told Politico.
He said in the first half of this year his Centre had recorded 1,505 cases of various sexual offenses including rape and sexual penetration with only 98 of those cases ‘‘successfully’’ prosecuted.
He said that part of the problem this year had been the impact of COVID-19 on the judiciary and that the special offenses would ensure speedy justice and support to survivors.
“There was no special court and judges were dealing with so many other cases from all over the country. So, sometimes survivors keep coming to court from one case to the other. So it was a burden; but with the opening of this court, it will ease the movement of survivors and now they’ll be able to get justice as quickly as possible,’’ he added.
The opening ceremony was preceded by one-day training for judges, magistrates, prosecutors of the Law Officers’ Department, and defence lawyers of the Sierra Leone Legal Aid Board on how to handle sexual offence cases.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Sierra Leone Judiciary, Moses Kamara the training aimed at supporting the expeditious trial for all sexual offense cases. He said that the training brought together key stakeholders including medical experts and intelligence officers from the Family Support Unit (FSU) of the police.
Speaking at the opening of the training, Chief Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards said the judiciary under his leadership conducted the first training on sexual offences in January for all Judges, magistrates, some prosecuting lawyers and defense lawyers from the Legal Aid Board.
He said the same had had to be done again this week on the theme “Trial of Sexual Offenses”.
He went on to note that he believed the training would “hit the nail on the head and it will hit it well,” referring to the participants as “stakeholders” in the fight against sexual exploitation against women and children, a problem he said had been so rampant even among boys, stressing that the public depended on the judiciary in the fight.
Chief Justice Edwards added that the defence counsels were there to ensure the right of accused persons should be protected; adding that judges were very vital and they must ensure they do justice to all manner of people.
Representatives from the Ministry of Gender also benefited from the training.
President Julius Maada Bio is expected to be at the opening of the court this morning.
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