By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
A 2019 United States report has accused the Sierra Leone government of human rights violations in the country.
The report singles out basic human rights which, it says, have been threatened by government.
“Significant human rights issues including criminal libel laws, harsh and life-long threatening prison conditions, official corruption, trafficking in persons and child labour are the most threatened,” the report reads in part.
However, the report indicates that government has taken some steps to investigate and punish officials who perpetrate the abuses, but, says impunity still persists.
Specifically, the report lays emphasis on freedom of expression and of the press, arguably the most cherished right, in a democracy.
Government officials, according to the report, employed “criminal slander” provisions of the law to impede witness testimony in court cases.
While there is no hate speech law, the report says, authorities use it as legal justification for restricting freedom of speech.
The report also indicated that government used “violence” and “harassment” against journalists.
The harassment, according to the report, is evidenced by frequent arrest and detention of media practitioners viewed critical of government.
According to the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, the report says, eight journalists were arrested on allegations of defamatory and seditious libel laws.
The arrest of Emmanuel Thorley, editor of Nightwatch newspaper stands out in the US report.
“In January, last year, police arrested and detained, for two days, the editor of Nightwatch newspaper, Emmanuel Thorli, for defamatory libel and released him on bail,” the report recounted.
It is alleged by the report that Police investigators reportedly pressured the journalist to disclose the source of an article about the issuance of diplomatic passports to 300 relatives of President Bio.
Since bail was granted to the editor, the case file was sent to the law officers department for advice so that charges could be preferred.
It is yet to be released by the law office and the case remains pending.
In November last year, the report went on; a comedian was arrested and charged under criminal libel law for allegedly defaming President Bio.
Female journalists, according to the report, have not been spared for violence.
“In September, last year, presidential bodyguards physically assaulted two female journalists reporting on a sporting event at the national stadium, where President Bio was in attendance,” the report said.
The presidential guards, the report said, reportedly threatened to shoot the journalists, and one of them was hospitalized.
However, action has been taken against the presidential guard following recommendation of an investigative committee.
“In October, an investigative committee composed of civil society, media, and government officials recommended the removal of one presidential guard from the force, and the government complied,” the report says.
The law punishes defamatory and seditious libel with imprisonment of up to three years.
Owing to the hulabaloo on the persistent arrest and detention of journalists, cabinet has voted to repeal the criminal libel law, but parliament is yet to approve.
Apart from the arrest and detention of journalists, the report does not lose sight of other critical human rights which, it says, the state continues to abuse.
“Investigations into the shooting and killing of two persons in Kailahun are yet to be completed,” the report says.
The names of two senior officials of the main opposition including the former mayor of Freetown were captured by the report.
The two officials were arrested and detained over allegations of beating to death, Ibrahim Samura, journalist of Sierra Leone’s local tabloids, New Age newspaper in Freetown.
The matter is now being heard at the high court of Sierra Leone after committal proceedings at the magistrate court level.
Similarly, Sierra Leone Police, the country’s principal law enforcement agency, is also singled out for excessive use of force in handling political protests although the report says, the law prohibits that.
The report also exposed the sanitary condition of police detention facilities. “…Police cells were poor, especially in small stations outside Freetown. Lack of adequate physical facilities created life-threatening conditions for detainees,” the report said.
Almost invariably, prison department has not been spared by the report with special emphasis on congestion of the facilities. “The country’s 20 prisons, designed to hold 2,055 inmates, held 4,559 as of August,” the report also reads.
The Male correctional Centre on Pa Demba Road in Freetown is labelled the worst. “The most severe example of overcrowding was in Freetown Male Correctional Centre, designed to hold 324 inmates, which held 2, 089,” it says.
“Some prison cells measuring six feet by nine feet held nine or more inmates,” the report says.
Prison Watch is a local non-governmental organisation that monitors and reports on prison conditions and welfare of inmates among other functions.
The US report says Prison Watch reported that 13 prisons and detention centres were moderately overcrowded.
In most cases, the report said, pre-trial detainees were held with convicted prisoners.
“The Attorney General reported that as of August, 4,559 persons held in prisons and detention centres of which, 1,941 had been convicted,” the report says.
“One inmate jailed in 2007 had yet to appear in court,” the report stressed.
Human rights observers, the report says, has reported that detention conditions remained below minimum international standards owing to “unhygienic conditions” and “insufficient medical attention.”
The 2019 US report is one of those reports that have brought government under the spotlight for violation of human rights.
Another report recently published this year indicates that the Sierra Leone Police is among the ten worst police forces in the world.