By Musa Paul Feika
There are numerous recommendations in the TRC report. One of which states that there should be independent of the judiciary, meaning that the judiciary as an arm of government in exercising its functions, should be free from the other two arms of government; the Executive and Legislature, in administering justice to the people of Sierra Leone. It continues that there should be no interference from the two arms of government in the execution of the mandate of the judiciary.
If the TRC recommendations were adhered to, it could have possibly led to the independence of the judiciary in Sierra Leone. For example, if the Office of the Attorney General (AG) was separated from the Ministry of Justice, that will strengthen the Judiciary Service Commission. Also, although the President, in his Executive Powers, according Sierra Leone’s 1991 Constitution, has the right to appoint the Chief Justice and Judges, we would not be remiss to inform that they should not be controlled by any person or authority in the execution of their work, save the Constitution of Sierra Leone, which is the highest law in the land.
Because the APC and the ruling SLPP government led by President Julius Maada Bio have appointed Sierra Leoneans to key positions in our governance over the years, including as Speaker of the House of Parliament, the Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) force and the Chief of Defence Staff among others, both party governments, the APC and the SLPP, have on numerous occasions flouted the judiciary and the security forces, the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) and the Sierra Leone Police (SLP), whenever they are in governance, using them against the other.
The All People’s Congress Party (APC) and the incumbent Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) have both turned blind eyes to some of the TRC recommendations in their years of running the affairs of the state in order to promote the interest of their political parties.
The reason behind this recommendation by our donor partners and other multilateral and bilateral countries’ TRC reports was to create a strengthened security system that would be devoid of political manipulation that would also result to our politicians taking full responsibilities for their actions for or against the interest of the people and nation of Sierra Leone.
The two political parties have been consistently using the security forces and the courts to enhance intimidation and suppression of their political opponents. There is no gainsaying that the excess baggage of our judiciary positioned by the APC and the SLPP parties cannot be easily offloaded.
It is obvious that most of the country’s problems are coming from the judiciary and the Sierra Leone Police, which problems will not be easily solved until these institutions are independent and accountable to the people of Sierra Leone.
Volume Two Chapter Three, paragraph 132 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, otherwise known as Truth Telling, recommends: “A Judiciary must be independent, if it is to stand between the powerful and powerless. Judges must be independent if they are to dispense impartial justice. An independent and impartial Judiciary holds a central place in realisation of a just, honest, open and accountable government. The Judiciary can play its role only when it has the power to enforce ruling and it has efficient organisation.”
The TRC report continues: “Judiciary independence ultimately depends on the will of the individual in the three branches of state to adhere to the constitution. Those in the executive and legislature must be committed to independence. Impartiality and the supremacy of the Judiciary in its role adjudicator; where the Judiciary is adequately resourced and whether the other branches of government obey and implement the rulings of the courts are factors against which the extent of this commitment will be assessed.”
If these institutions remain answerable to our political leaders, especially the Executive arm of government, our country will be a divided nation as the country’s general election is on our doorstep. Under the watch of the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Madam Priscilla Schwartz, the state prosecutor lost a high profile matter and fingers were pointed at the ruling SLPP party for failing to create an enabling environment not just for the law to prevail but for also failing to entice investments to Sierra Leone that will boost the economy, which many economists have described as a “shattered economy” the ruling SLP government is claiming they inherited from the APC regime.
It could recall during the trial of the former Minister of Defence (MOD) and Internal Affairs in the previous APC regime, retired Major Alfred Palo Conteh, who was charged with treason, which is the highest crime in our law books, it was alleged that in March 2020 Conteh and his co-accused, who were employees of the Commission on Smalls Arms, were apprehended on treason and related offenses.
The allegation was that Palo Conteh attempted to assassinate President Bio to take over the government. He was arrested with a pistol licensed with the Commission of Small arms, which roped in the commission’s employees for aiding and abetting in the commission of a felony, to wit, treason.
The state prosecutors failed to win the matter and many political commentators said that Madam Schwartz’s legal advice to the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) to charge Palo Conteh with treason and other related offenses was wrong and that she proffered them merely trying to please her employer, the head of the Executive.
Throughout the trial, due to heavy security presence around the main Law Court Building on Siaka Stevens Street, whenever the matter came up reminded or created in the minds of Sierra Leoneans of the scenes and scenarios of the eleven-year civil war that ravaged the country.
But the 12-man jury who were looking into the matter ended up returning a not guilty verdict, which warranted Justice Alhaji Momoh Jah Stevens to acquit and discharge Major Alfred Palo Conteh and his co-accused of the treason offense.
During the summary trial the leading Defence Counsel, Dr. O. Conteh, submitted to the learned judge that “a person alone cannot commit treason”, and that his client, Palo Conteh, was “not Rambo to overthrow a sitting government”, going as far as making a reference to the first military coup in Sierra Leone, 1968.
It was a clear manifestation that state prosecutors woefully failed to prove the elements in the treason case against Palo Conteh as established by law because they sidelined the law to please one arm of government to the detriment of the others.
The TRC report captured that the police and the military forces were factors in the eleven-year civil and brutal war in Sierra Leone, which led to gruesome human rights violations and conflict atrocities. The TRC report also blamed the judiciary for failing to discipline or enhance social justice, the rule of law and fundamental human rights of the ordinary Sierra Leonean.
This article is produced with support from Media Reform Coordinating Group (MRCG) through the African Transitional Justice Legacy Fund (ATJLF) project “On engaging the media to change the narrative on transitional justice issues in Sierra Leone.”