Sierra Leone News: More than 750 Accused Persons Have no Legal Representation
By Mariama Sesay
Centre for Accountability and the Rule of Law — Sierra Leone (CARL-SL) has observed that out of the 1, 017 cases monitored across the country, 787 accused persons had no legal representation.
The Executive Director of CARL — SL, Ibrahim Tommy made this comment at a press conference held on Monday July 1, 2019, in Freetown.
The purpose of the briefing was to update Journalists on the monitoring report on Bail Regulations 2018, and the compliance level of the regulation in courtrooms, which was funded by United State Department Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and UNDP.
Within the four months period, CARL together with Prison Watch and Humanist Watch-Sierra Leone assigned 24 monitors to various courtrooms in 12 judicial districts across the country.
According to Tommy, in 2018, Sierra Leone government enacted the bail regulations which provide guideline for judges and magistrates when listening to bail application in order to ensure consistency and respect for the rights of accused persons.
He said that the primary objective of the bail regulation is to ensure that people are remanded only when it is absolutely necessary.
He said that they analyzed 1, 017 cases across 12 districts over a period of 4 months. Out of 1,017 cases monitored, 935 of the accused persons were male, accounting for 91%; 82 were female accounting for 8.9%. He disclosed that Western Area Urban recorded 560 of the total cases monitored. Bo recorded 120 cases from the 1,017 cases monitored.
He said that 216 sexual related offences were recorded nationally accounting for 17.6% of the total cases reconrded. “This basically shows that the most prevalent offences at the moment are sexual violent cases. A total number of 215 cases related to larceny, representing 17.5 % of all cases monitored.
He noted that 672 accused persons were granted bail, representing 52.2%, whilst 345 accused persons were denied bail for various reasons, adding that 315 cases were adjourned because witnesses were absent. He stated that 215 accused were granted bail at first appearance, whilst 192 accused were denied bail at first appearance.
“We have been engaging the justice sector on the implementation of the bail regulations,” he said.
He said that they have been raising awareness on the bail regulations through radio discussions across its operational district.
