The Sierra Leone Bar Association has strongly reacted to the utterances of the country’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice at the launching of the Commissions of Enquiry, where she criticised the Bar Association for having expressed their opinion on the legality of the Constitutional Instruments establishing the three (3) Commissions of Enquiry.
The Sierra Leone Bar Association has, in a press release last month, pledged their support to the Commissions of Enquiry, but called on the Government to respect sections 150 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone in the establishment of the three Commissions of Enquiry.
The Government, through the Attorney General, have dismissed the Association on the matter and went ahead and established the Commissions. However, the Bar Association was left with no option but to take the matter to Supreme Court for further interpretation.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney General had since not commented on the issue of the failure of the three Constitutional Instruments to provide for the use of rules of court committee, even when the matter became very topical within opposition parties, civil society organisations and the media.
Minister Priscilla Schwartz decided to break silence on the issue when she noted that several Commissions of Enquiry have been held in the country after independence, but none of them ever complied with the rules of the court committee.
She criticized the Bar Association for failing to condemn such Commissions of Enquiry in the past.
The Sierra Leone Bar Association responded within 24 hours after the Attorney General made the damning comments against it. In fact, the Bar Association is the umbrella body for lawyers. They expressed disappointment that the AG could move away from normal practice to comment on an issue which is already at the Supreme Court for interpretation. The AG’s action, according to the Bar Association, is an interference with due process.
“This is a sad and unfortunate departure from the ethics and code of conduct of our profession. We expect the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, as titular head of the Bar, to lead by example.
The SLBA release also noted that they have considered the warning issued by the Hon Attorney General and Minister of Justice, which calls for senior lawyers to desist from litigating in the court of public opinion, as it is ill-advised and unwarranted.
The Bar Association noted that it was disappointing to hear the AG castigating senior members of the profession for exercising their fundamental human rights of freedom of expression.
The release further noted that the action of the AG, to use the platform of the launch of the COI to advance her arguments regarding a case that is already in the Supreme Court, was tantamount to doing what she has preached against. The release advised the AG to save her legal arguments for the courtroom.
“…The Association urges the Hon Attorney General and Minister of Justice to perfect the arguments she made on the 29th day of January,2019 at the Special Court Complex, and subsume them in a Statement of the Defendants’ case and file them before the Supreme Court as required by rule 92 (1) of the Supreme Court 1982..’’
The Bar Association’s release concluded by referring to the statement of His Excellency the President on the state opening of the first session of the fifth Republic in which he said “I will lead by example and will demonstrate the necessary discipline to refrain from acting unconstitutionally.”
The Bar Association respectfully asks the Government to act in line with His Excellency’s statements of promise and not to act unconstitutionally.
The opposition All People’s Congress, just like the Sierra Leone Bar Association, have criticized Government and referred to the COI as very unconstitutional and that it will not subject its membership to unconstitutionality.