''All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'' - Edmund Burke

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S I E R R A  H E R A L D

Vol 10 No 2

The tendency sometimes to protect perpetrators for the sake of peace...doesn't help society. Impunity should not be allowed to stand. - Kofi Annan on Waki report

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Tuesday February 28, 2012 - As thieving Nigerian politician is brought to book for massive economic crimes against his own people, we suspect its silence and trepidation along the corridors of State House in Freetown as the James Ibori case has a familiar ring in the thieving circles created by President Ernest Bai Koroma. We appeal to the law enforcement agencies in Western countries to help track all suspected cases of money laundering as well as the creation of sudden fat bank accounts.James Ibori - thief, criminal and enemy of the people of DeltaIbori mistress sentenced for her part in Ibori's criminal activity

Former Delta State governor James Ibori is now cooling his heels in a UK prison wondering where he could have got things so badly wrong, despite all his stolen wealth that he shamelessly flaunted for all to see, never mind the hidden accounts and properties that yet have to come to light. The James Ibori story rings so familiar in Sierra Leone. The UK Daily Mail has noted -

The Nigerian thief started off as a lowly clerk at Wickes, a Do It Yourself (DIY) store where he was caught, tried and found guilty of stealing goods from the store in 1990 and this after he had moved from Nigeria to settle in West London in the 1980's. His next brush with the law was when, a year later after the DIY store theft, he was convicted of handling a stolen credit card.

Moving back to Nigeria, after watching and working out the political possibilities that could come his way if things were carefully manipulated, he worked his way into the confidence of the late Sani Abacha the Nigerian dictator where it is reported that he was employed as a "policy consultant". Seizing every opportunity to feather his nest, it is reported that this thief systematically stole from the public purse, taking kickbacks and transferring state funds to his own bank accounts around the world.

It is quite an interesting read if not a pathetic picture of the heartless actions of those entrusted with the improvement of the welfare of their own people - the reports are all identical in that this depriver of the people was helped in his criminal activity by, yes, you guessed it - family members, including his wife Theresa, sister Christine Ibori-Ibie, his mistress Udoamaka Oniugbo, and Mayfair lawyer Bhadresh Gohil.

UK prosecutors dug deep and uncovered quite a lot including a study of the Nigerian constitution and ramifications for a knave who should have never contested for such a big public office in Nigeria if he had disclosed his convictions in the United Kingdom. Based on their findings, Prosecutor Sasha Wass told the court Ibori concealed his UK criminal record, which would have excluded him from office in Nigeria. 'He was never the legitimate governor and there was effectively a thief in government house,' Miss Wass said. 'As the pretender of that public office, he was able to plunder Delta State's wealth and hand out patronage.' The court heard Ibori abused his position to award contracts to his associates including his sister and his mistress. He was arrested by the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in December 2007, but two years later a court in his home town, Asaba, dismissed the charges saying there was not enough evidence.

Sounds familiar? Oh yes. Remember the matter of one Allieu Sesay, the former head of the National Revenue Authority, the NRA. He was slapped with some 57 counts relating to among others, contracts that were awarded to his wife and other associates. At the end of it all, he and his co-accused were cleared by the High Court - a ruling which left the Head of the Anti Corruption Commission Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara fuming with feigned or real righteous indignation. He told the nation that he would be appealing that decision. What happened to that promised line of action is still awaited.

And for those outside the borders of Sierra Leone, please read and re-read the provisions of the Anti Corruption Act 2008 as there are a couple of things that should send shivers through spines of the corrupt.

Foreign States - 109. (1) The Commissioner may, after consultation with the Minister responsible for Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, make a request to a foreign State-(a) which he considers may be able to provide evidence or information relating to a corruption offence; or (b) for the freezing and forfeiture of property located in that State and which is liable to be forfeited by reason of it being the proceeds of a corruption offence. (2) Where the foreign State, to which a request for assistance is made under subsection (1), requires the request to be signed by an appropriate competent authority, the Commissioner shall, for the purposes only of making such a request, be considered as the appropriate competent authority.

Issuing evidence order against person resident in foreign State - 110. The Commissioner may, in respect of any proceedings for a corruption offence, apply to a Judge in chambers for an order directed to any person resident in a foreign State to deliver himself or any document or material in his possession or under his control to the jurisdiction of the Court or, subject to the approval of the foreign State, to the jurisdiction of the Court of the foreign State for the purpose of giving evidence in relation to those proceedings.

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Wednesday February 22, 2012 - Award-wining Sunday Times journalist is killed in Syria. Reports from some quarters that Marie Colvin and colleague photographer Remi Ochlik could have been deliberately targeted by government forces. It was only yesterday that viewers heard her on the BBC One O'Clock news talking about the terrible situation under which civilians have been trying to cope as Syrian government shells rained on the defenceless and unarmed civilian population killing and horrible maiming all that came within that barrage of death and destruction.Marie Colvin - killed today Wednesday February 22, 2012 in the Syrian city of Homs

The award-winning war correspondent and reporter for the Sunday Times, Marie Colvin is no more. She died today after Syrian guns targeted what she and several colleagues had been using as a make-shift media centre. The Telegraph, reporting on the death of Marie Colvin noted these last hours of her life as she recorded the horrors visited upon the civilian population.

Only yesterday, she had reported on shelling in the city in a video for the BBC, as well as CNN, in which she described the bloodshed as “absolutely sickening”.

She accused Assad’s forces of “murder” and said it was “a complete and utter lie that they are only targeting terrorists…the Syrian army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians.” Colvin was reportedly staying next to a hospital in a house that was widely known to have been set up as a makeshift press centre by opposition supporters. Yesterday she visited the hospital and described seeing a baby die there after he had been struck in the chest by shrapnel.

In a report published in the Sunday Times over the weekend, Colvin spoke of the citizens of Homs "waiting for a massacre". "The scale of human tragedy in the city is immense. The inhabitants are living in terror. Almost every family seems to have suffered the death or injury of a loved one," she wrote.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament today during PM Question Time: "This is a desperately sad reminder of the risks that journalists take to inform the world of what is happening, and the dreadful events in Syria." The editor of the Sunday Times, John Witherow, said it was doing what it could to recover Ms Colvin's body.....

And why was she there? Because she felt that the story of what was happening in the beleaguered Syrian city of Homs must be told as it was happening so that the world could know just what she and others had been witnessing, not from the safety of rooms in TV studios far removed from Homs, but right there with the people - telling the world of the atrocities being committed by Assad's forces on his own people.

One new report states that communication between Syrian Army officers intercepted by Lebanese intelligence staff has revealed that direct orders were issued to target the makeshift press centre in which Colvin had been broadcasting. Jean-Pierre Perin, a journalist for the Paris-based Liberation newspaper who was with Colvin in Homs last week, claimed they had been told that the Syrian Army was "deliberately" going to shell their centre. Mr Perin said: "A few days ago we were advised to leave the city urgently and we were told: 'If they (the Syrian Army) find you they will kill you'.

"I then left the city with the journalist from the Sunday Times but then she wanted to go back when she saw that the major offensive had not yet taken place." Mr Perin, who headed to Beirut from Homs, said the Syrians were "fully aware" that the press centre was broadcasting direct evidence of crimes against humanity, including the murdering of women and children. "The Syrian Army issued orders to 'kill any journalist that set foot on Syrian soil'." It was in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, that Mr Perin received news of the intercepted Syrian Army radio traffic. The Syrians knew that if they destroyed the press centre, then there would be "no more information coming out of Homs", said Mr Perin.

This scenario is the same that happened under the beasts of the AFRC/RUF in Sierra Leone during their murderous reign (May 25, 1997 - February 1998) in which journalists thought to be "against the junta" were deliberately targeted. Indeed one of the linchpins in the APC-inspired coup of May 25, 1997, one Zagallo openly boasted that all perceived opponents of the junta would be killed. " I dont care if they are aid workers, red cross personnel or journalists. All will be killed who dare oppose our revolution"

Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik are not the only ones killed because of their attempts to tell the world of what was happening in Homs. Activists who were seen or heard talking to international broadcasters have had their locations targeted and killed.

She was 55.


Sunday February 12, 2012 - On faiths, religion and the "power" of the devil in corruption and the 2nd term desperadoes. What can make a "poor and honest" church mouse feel like roaring like a lion of falsehood? - Corruption and the benefits derived thereof!!!!

It is another Sunday, a day when members of the Christian faith should visit real places of Christian worship and to exchange views on how best to show even unto unbelievers that Christianity is a clean, very clean and tolerant religion which respects the integrity of God's creation - man, the generic man.President Ernest Bai Koroma - how desperate is he for a second term?

We raised this before and we would do so again. We had in the past challenged the high priest at the altar of profanities and falsehood of his god ernest bai koroma that he appears to have forgotten his cut an paste sermons as he gets too preoccupied with spewing falsehood all around in order to protect his god and master, the smoke and mirrors character at State House who thinks nothing of doing all things illegal, all things ungodly to get his much treasured "second term".

And so we would again urge him to do a sermon on the theme - "Gluttony is a sin" - in the hope that he will realise that greed is a deadly sin that gets duly rewarded when least expected.

Remember how he boasted that he never visits online forum from where he get his "news" and that he does not use false names? Well an encounter with the administrator of one of those forums bears testimony to this lying charlatan.

We had in the past warned him, the magician at State House that is - that the true God is not mocked and that there will always be a price to be paid. Ernest Bai Koroma has twice tried to play on the Sierra Leonean's fear of God and holding on to religious faiths in times of want and other forms of crises by declaring his so-called Week of Prayer - something which is never, ever honoured by his close associates - for they know that their master always speaks with a forked tongue.

And so it is with great concern that we alerted all Sierra Leoneans and friends of the country to a ceremony, a ritual which was performed at State House and reported by his "new media adviser", of President Ernest Bai Koroma getting married to 100 women all dressed in white - and ending with assurances that he, the smoke and mirrors man will get his "second term" in office. This clearly showed that the whole ritual was aimed at using all means ungodly to retain power, come the November polls.

We raised concern about the fate, the destiny of that six year old girl. We asked child rights groups to monitor and protect that girl for we know and the old hands of the APC know what it means when the "murray-man", "alpha-man", marabout or whatever you may want to call these messengers of the devil ask for a virgin in their rituals.

That six year old, we fear is the sacrificial virgin and again we would urge children's rights activists to ensure that that particular girl used in that State House ritual is not harmed.

That she remains alive and well.

"At State House about midday, January 25, 2012, there was a unique ceremony laden with symbolism that captured the essence and joy of being ‘Sierra Leone an’, and would be highly promotional of one of the most globally marketable character of our Sierra Leonean-ness – our religious tolerance: over one hundred women clad in pure white long flowing dresses and white headscarves from the Brookfield Central Mosque and the Old Railway Line Mosque in Freetown went through a symbolic ‘marriage’ to a fervent Christian, H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. A calabash and mat, tied with white cloth – traditional symbols of marriage within nearly all the indigenous tribes in Sierra Leone – and a six year old girl (the ‘little bride’), also clad from head to toe in Islamic white clothes, were handed over to President Koroma by the APC Women’s Congress Leader to ‘seal’ the ‘marriage’ between President Koroma, a serious Christian, and the Islamic women, who pleaded with President Koroma to worship in their mosque. President Koroma promised to worship in their mosque in his speech accepting the 100 ‘brides’. The still dashingly handsome President at 58 years of age said with a smile: “Leh God put blessing pan di marrade” (Let God bless this marriage between me and the 100 women). There were chants of “Allahakbah” from the women!!"

How can a President belonging to the Wesleyan Church get immersed in a ritual involving a so-called six year old "little bride" is beyond comprehension...it can only mean one thing - getting his second term using all the dark forces at his command. One commentator on such satanic rituals has told us that in such ceremonies, only those with "the right eyes" would be able to see the evil spirits that are conjured from the pits of hell for use by those who believe in such demon practices. All other "naked" eyes will not see the demons and the settings conjured up by those rituals.

We do not want to go into one case involving one APC minister during the Siaka Stevens government - but journalists at the time would recall just how names of places like Sendugu, Sanda Magbolontor etc etc found their way into the pages of their note books. How do you satisfy a satanic priest's wish that you harvest the body part of someone who has never set eyes on the sun?

We dare not go further for now.

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Saturday February 11, 2012 - Why 11 year old Kadiatu's story published in the UK "Mirror" newspaper must be told again and again.....highlighting how the thieving operatives of the government and ruling party secure what they believe are all the good things in life for self and associates as the unconnected wallow in poverty, filth and deprivation. Sierra Leone's uncaring Nazis and AFRC/RUF apologists exposed again. But do they care?Kadiatu - her story must be told and retold - of the plight of the poor and unconnected in Sierra Leone

We are afraid, just as they did in their previous nation-wrecking grip on power for 24 years - they just do not care.

In their little over four years in party the trait running across their handling of the government affairs remains - thieving and looting of the national treasury at every opportunity.

The story of Kadiatu must be told and retold so that Sierra Leoneans, friends of Sierra Leone and all those who care about a country still trying to recover from a decade of a brutal war would have an idea of just what obtains on the ground which the smoke and mirrors President Koroma and his thieving and deceitful associates would not want to be highlighted.

We await his internet flying toilets, managed by vermin to the core to describe John Bishop as another "enemy of the state" - a term reserved for anyone who dares state things are they are on the ground and how the poor, deprived and unconnected try to live in a country where those with paws on the national purse engage in massive looting.

The story - When John met Kadiatu is a moving story - far removed from the fictitious pictures painted by hired "journalists" of the smoke and mirrors President Ernest Bai Koroma.

John Bishop is a stand-up comic whose antics on TV is a delight to many of his admirers as he delves into issues many take for granted until he gets to work on them - to the applause and delight of his numerous fans and audiences all over the United Kingdom.

However John's assignment to Freetown and his story of Kadiatu is no laughing matter. In what appears to be a little spotlight on one aspect of life for the ordinary Sierra Leonean girl, he has set people thinking about just what this means for the survival of children in a country where death always knocks at the door because of a lack of the vaccines and other medications needed to combat preventable diseases like measles.

Fancy this if you will -

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Monday February 6, 2012 - The Diamond Jubilee celebrations are on - 60 years ago today February 6, a Princess becomes the Queen of the United Kingdom while on holiday in Kenya. The waiting game for that crown.Her Majesty the Queen - Sixty years and counting on the throne

Today marks sixty years of Queen Elizabeth's taking on the mantle of not only Queen of the United Kingdom and the Empire, but also as Head of the Commonwealth of Nations.

To mark this event, a special year-long programme of celebration has been lined up with Her Majesty the Queen making a special Diamond Jubilee thank you message to all her supporters all over the world. A new website is already up and running that is specially dedicated to the Diamond Jubilee.

According to the BBC, then Princess Elizabeth was enjoying a break from royal duties with her husband Prince Philip in Kenya in February 1952 when the news was broken that her father 56 year old King George the Sixth had died suddenly, thus making her the new holder of the post, so to state. And as the story is told and retold of how a Princess on a visit to Kenya came back to the UK as Queen, the lodge/hotel in which the couple had been staying gets mentioned now and again, a piece of history etched in events related to the monarchy - the Treetop Hotel some 100 miles from the capital Nairobi.

The British hunter Jim Corbett, who was also staying at Treetops at the time, later wrote the now famous lines in the visitors' log book: "For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience she climbed down from the tree next day a Queen." At the time, however, Elizabeth had no knowledge of the event that was to change her life.

Also on the pages would be the "little matter" of just when Prince Charles would succeed to the throne and given the history of succession, Prince Charles would have to wait until his mom passes away to the great beyond or in a move that appears far-fetched for now - the Queen deciding she'd had enough and would want her son to take over.

Then there's the matter of the dashing Prince William who is next in line to the throne. He will have to wait until his father Prince Charles passes away after becoming King, but should he decide that he would not make his own reign a life-long affair, then that would pave the way for Prince William to become the new King - but that's taking too many ifs into consideration as no one as yet could read the minds of the Queen nor of Prince Charles for that matter, all that can be stated and written for the time being would be pure speculation.

The public would just have to wait and see what unfolds under the Royal Banner of the British Monarchy.

We join all good peoples of the world in congratulating and wishing Her Majesty the Queen God's richest gifts and pray that she continues to fulfil her role to God and man.


Wednesday February 1, 2012 - Revisiting the APC Manifesto - Holding the government to account. What the then opposition promised the people. More than four years on - promises delivered?Former President Ahmed Tejan KabbahAfter more than four years in office, a terrible record of massive corruption, political intolerance and violence

In the run-up to the 2007 General and Presidential elections, the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party led by one Ernest Bai Koroma went to town on an SLPP-led government that had become less caring, arrogant and with officials only prepared to listen to praise singers. This led to a wave of accusations from the APC and indeed concerned members of the public that if the SLPP was given a third term, never mind the violent disruption of the beasts of no nation on May 25, 1997, the country would have been in reality a one-party state that would have put more oil in the allegedly corrupt machinery of the SLPP and allied interested parties.

And so it was with a somewhat breath of fresh air that the Sierra Herald welcomed a change in the leadership of the country, (this despite Christiana Thorpe's illegal cancellation of votes in some parts of the country) hoping that having seen the wrong areas of governance during the President Kabbah administration, the much younger and promising Ernest Bai Koroma would deliver on his promises to make life easier on the people.

Our hopes were raised after taking a look at the manifesto of the opposition - a document that put on record for the education and analysis of living and yet to come generations of what good governance should be all about.

These opening lines, the preamble of the opposition's manifesto included this  - "The All Peoples Congress Party affirms its belief in the supremacy and inviolability of the constitution of Sierra Leone and the sovereignty of our people. As a government we are committed to the strict observance and enforcement of it provisions. We will therefore conform to the spirit and letter of the constitution" gave us hope. Hope that after being in the political wilderness for some 15 years after it was kicked out of power by the same boys in khaki who were recruited by APC party bigwigs, concubines, associates and relations, lessons could have been learnt from the massive celebrations that followed the April 29, 1992 revolution of freedom from the suffocating, murderous and thieving talons of the pre-April 29, 1992 governments of Siaka Stevens and Joseph Saidu Momoh.

Hopes were indeed raised when that document, the APC manifesto that is, lambasted what it termed the lack of transparency in the affairs of government, rampant corruption as well as painting a picture that with a government of the APC in power, all will be well and that Sierra Leoneans, to quote the late Joseph Saidu Momoh in Parliament in late 1985, will now eat from the table, no longer picking up the crumbs from the table at which sat the corrupt including Sierra Leoneans and foreigners of such inclination.

These lines in that document also gave hope, not only to APC party supporters, but to the many Sierra Leoneans who had never seen, witnessed or experienced what good governance was all about; people who were not yet born, or if they were - just too young to know what Sierra Leone was like just after we gained independence from Britain in 1961.

"The challenge of any incoming government in 2007 will be to reverse this trend, by establishing proper governance and sustainable development, and generally breaking the depressing cycle of poverty...in every nation today, the principles of transparency and accountability and the elimination of corrupt practices are generally recognized as indispensable attributes for good governance. An APC government will ensure the strict adherence to these principles and practices, and will subject itself to an African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) and any other international benchmarks...executive interference, coupled with the pursuit of political party interests have clearly undercut the constitutional role of the legislature...our immediate and general concern for our people will be to provide the basic social services which many other countries take for granted, but which our people continue to be deprived of. Necessities such as affordable staple food (rice), electricity, water, basic health care, an expanded education system, and jobs for the bulging numbers of unemployed youth. All these will be our focus."

 

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Wednesday November 16, 2011 - International Day for Tolerance - but does our smoke and mirrors President and more especially those who believe that hurling their internet flying toilets at perceived critics realise that they have woefully failed the nation in terms of tolerance, political and opinion tolerance? We doubt this very much. In fact we can categorically state that this ruling party scores below zero when it comes to political tolerance visiting violence on all those who dare to criticise their god ernest bai koroma and would have gone even further had it not been for the ever-vigilant watch of concerned Sierra Leoneans and the international community.President Koroma - fanning the flames of intoleranceThis picture of the main opposition flagbearer was ridiculed to scorn by Ernest Bai Koroma media

Let us begin by taking a part of the message of the UNESCO Director-General for this year 2011 and then decide if a party that has won a keenly fought battle for the highest political seat in the land, State House would physically attack the losing side, in Sierra Leone, the former ruling party, the SLPP. In that attack, one man was killed and up to the time of writing this - no one has been arrested and no investigations conducted into the death of another Sierra Leonean and in an explanation that defied logic, the then head of the police had the gumption to say that the ransacking and looting of the SLPP office was carried out by SLPP supporters who were on an "operation pay yourself" because, according to that police chief the SLPP had not paid the looters their dues, money owed them for work done on behalf of the SLPP. And this from the head of a law-enforcement body.

This no doubt encouraged more such attacks leading to the arson attacks, alleged rape and sexual assaults of SLPP supporters caught up in their own office buildings in in Freetown in March 2009.

This is a part of the UNESCO boss' message

"Tolerance is an ancient idea, at the same time as being an idea that is always new and in need of continual reinvention. Much more importantly, tolerance is a behaviour, a way of being that evolves with the history of our societies. In a world that is more connected than ever, intolerance is not an option, and “passive tolerance” or mere peaceful coexistence is not enough. The mixing of different identities and the rapprochement of diverse cultures, between States but also within societies, calls for us to devise models of citizenship and social participation where individuals manage to live together truly, rather than just “side by side”.

...Tolerance is a school for dialogue. It is a condition for identifying, by comparing experiences and opinions, the shared core values of our belonging to humanity regardless of our different origins, faiths or cultures. Tolerance is, by definition, openness to others. It is the opposite of indifference and can never promote withdrawal into one’s own culture or community...The building of an ethic of real tolerance today calls for each of us to improve our skills and our ability to embrace global diversity, by sharing knowledge, mastering languages, discovering cultures and learning the lessons of history. The key to this active tolerance is quality education, which enables us to take part in informed debate, listen to others and integrate diverse points of view. ...It is a vital challenge for peace. It also drives social innovation, a source of renewal for societies and ideas. No single country can meet our shared challenges. No culture has a monopoly over universality. If, together, we want to find new solutions to sustainable development issues and emerge from crises successfully, we need everyone to participate. A culture of tolerance is vital for the future of Nations and grows stronger through the daily behaviour of each and every one of us.

It is the culture of intolerance that saw some six million Jews murdered in Nazi Germany.

It is the culture of intolerance that saw nearly a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus murdered in Rwanda.

It is the culture of intolerance that saw more than five thousand murdered in Sierra Leone when AFRC/RUF forces tried to again seize power during the January 6, 1999 attacks on the capital Freetown.

It is this creeping and rising culture of intolerance that all Sierra Leoneans are urged to crush once and for all so that our children's children would live in love, peace and unity.

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April 26, 2012 - JUDGEMENT DAY....AND HE IS GUILTY...WAR LORD CHARLES TAYLOR CAUGHT OUT

FORMER LIBERIAN WARLORD, LEADER OF THE NPFL REBELS AND PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA HAS HAD HIS DAY IN COURT AND NOW IT IS LEFT WITH THE COURT TO DECIDE IF HE IS GUILTY AS ALLEGED ON THE 11-COUNT INDICTMENT ALLEGING, AMONG OTHERS, WAR CRIMES, CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AND OTHER SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

WATCH THE JUDGEMENT ONLINE ON THE WEBSITE OF THE SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONECharles Taylor at the Special Court for Sierra LeoneCharles Taylor was asked to stand up by the court as the guilty verdict was passed

Special Court for Sierra Leone

Outreach and Public Affairs Office

PRESS RELEASE

Freetown, Sierra Leone, 1 March 2012

Trial Chamber to Deliver Taylor Judgment on 26 April 2012

Judgment in the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor will take place on 26 April 2012, in accordance with a Scheduling Order issued today by Trial Chamber II.

The Judgment will be delivered at 11:00 a.m. in a courtroom belonging to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague, where the Taylor trial has been taking place.

Charles Taylor was charged in an 11-count indictment alleging responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by rebel forces in Sierra Leone during the country’s decade-long civil war. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The Taylor trial opened on 4 June 2007 in The Hague. It was adjourned immediately after the Prosecution’s opening statement when Mr. Taylor dismissed his Defence team and requested new representation. Witness testimony commenced on 7 January 2008, and ended on 12 November 2010. Closing arguments took place in February and March 2011.

The Court heard live testimony from 94 Prosecution witnesses, and received written statements from four additional witnesses. The Defence presented 21 witnesses, with Mr. Taylor testifying in his defence.

At a meeting this week with members of Sierra Leonean civil society, Special Court Registrar Binta Mansaray said that although delivery of the judgment had taken nearly a year, this was due largely to the complexity of the case. She noted that, amongst other matters, the Judges had to read through more than 50,000 pages of witness testimony, and to examine the1,520 exhibits which had been tendered in evidence. She said the time-frame was consistent with similar high-profile cases at other international tribunals.

Ms. Mansaray said that with this judgment the Special Court is set to reach another critical milestone, given that this is the last trial stemming from Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, and that it will be the last major trial to be held at the Court.

At the Special Court, as in other international tribunals, both the Prosecution and the Defence have the right to appeal. If Mr. Taylor is acquitted on all charges, the appeals process will begin immediately. If he is found guilty on any of the 11 counts, the Trial Chamber will schedule sentencing proceedings.

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