Sierra Leone News: CARL Presents Report on 2,105 Cases
By Mariama Sesay
Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL), a human right organisation, in collaboration with its implementing partners has on Friday October 11, 2019, presented its monitoring report on 2,105 cases across 14 judicial district in Sierra Leone.
Executive Director of CARL, Ibrahim Tommy said that out of the 2,105 cases monitored, 1,983 were male representing 94.2%; 122 of the accused persons were female representing 5.8%; 110 were aged between 13–17, representing 5.2%; 782 were aged between 18–25 representing 37.1%; 927 were aged between 26–35 representing 44.0%; and 224 of were aged between 36–45, representing 10.6%.
He said 743 of the total cases monitored were from the western area, representing 35.3%; 432 cases were monitored in Kenema, representing 20.5%; 199 cases were monitored in Bo representing 9.5%; 140 cases were monitored in Port Loko, representing 6.7%; and 98 cases were monitored in Bonthe, representing 4.7%.
Tommy said a total of 2,309 offences were involved in all the cases monitored across 14 districts o, and approximately 700 of those offence were considered very serious. These include sexual penetration, rape, sexual touching, wounding, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, and physical assault.
He said they observed that they observed that magistrates were less willing to grant bail to accused persons facing the above mentioned offences compared to minor offences such as traffic related offences, minor larceny, abusive language, loitering, riotous conducts.
He said they observed further that most of the very serious offences were committed in the western area urban and other district headquarter towns, while the Criminal Procedure Act of 1965 and the Bail Regulations of 2018, which empower the magistrates to grant bail for most of the offences listed above, they refused bail in most cases, and which is why the rating for compliance with the bail regulations for courts in the western urban is low.
He noted that there is limited knowledge among police prosecutors in respect of the Bail Regulation 2018. He said that during their interactions with police prosecutors, it was clear that while they are aware of the law, they need assistance in better understanding the provisions and their role as prosecutors.
He added that in one of their dialogue sessions, police prosecutors confessed that most of them have no idea about how to prepare an affidavit which is a key requirement that prosecutor need to fulfill if they wish to oppose bail, and they also expressed the lack of accessing computers in their duty stations. He said CARL reminded them that they don’t need to type an affidavit.
Tommy said a significant challenge confronting the implementation of bail regulations based on their observation is the unavailability of persons to stand as sureties for defendant or accused persons. He said that magistrate in the provinces grant bail to accused persons for very minor offences, and there is sometimes reluctance among friends, family members and the community as a whole to enter into recognizance for accused persons.
The executive director said they have observed that juvenile accused persons were remanded in the same facilities as adult inmate and according to the correctional services officers; it is the fault of the police prosecutors who fail to distinguish juveniles from adults when preferring charges.
