Concerns about the Whereabouts of detained Chief Superintendent of Police, Mohamed Turay aka Yaetay Yaetay and other police officers has been one of the hottest topics for public discussions. CSP Turay was picked up by Liberian police officers last month and extradited to Sierra Leone on allegations of an attempted coup known as treason in criminal law.
Other police and military officers were also similarly arrested. CSP Turay and others spent days in Liberian police custody before he was controversially extradited to Sierra Leone on a request made by President Julius Maada Bio, credible sources said. Although few Sierra Leoneans say Yaetay Yaetay is still in Liberia, police sources hold that he is the custody of the Sierra Leone Police since his extradition to Sierra Leone but kept somewhere else.
Their exact location is never disclosed as only God knows where they are held. Their length of detention without bringing them to a court has caused Sierra Leoneans to raise large eyebrows on Bio’s government.
At the moment, Sierra Leoneans especially Northwesterners wanted to know whether Turay and others are in custody or not. If they are in custody, they must be produced before a competent judicial authority to review the cause of detention. They could be either jailed if there is evidence of treason or freed if proved otherwise.
Legal experts would subscribe to the notion that Yaetay Yaetay and others were held in custody for capital offences, but their detention period should not last long. In one of the fundamental provisions of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991, it is clear that the maximum detention period for a capital offence is 10 days and 72 hours for minor one.
“Any person who is arrested and detained…shall be brought before a court of law within 10 days from the date of arrest in cases of capital offences, offences carrying life imprisonment and economic and environmental offences, and within 72 hours of his arrest in case of other offences,” a portion of the constitution reads.
Capital offences cover murder, treason, wounding with intent, robbery with aggravation among others, and anyone apprehended for such offences must not spend more than 10 days in custody. The constitutional provision which is emphatic on citizens’ freedom provide the basis on which one’s liberty could be justifiably deprived of him.
It says no person shall be deprived of his personal liberty except under the circumstances as indicated below:
in consequence of his unfitness to plead to a criminal charge, the execution of a sentence or order of a court either in Sierra Leone or elsewhere in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been convicted, execution of an order of a high court, the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court or such other court as may be prescribed by parliament or commission of inquiry as the case may be, reasonable suspicion of having committed or being about to commit an offence.
The law in question further says one’s freedom can be waived in the case of a person who has not attained age 21 for the purpose of his education or welfare, for the prevention of the spread of contagious disease or in the case of a person suspected of unsound mind, addicted to drugs or vagrant for the purpose of his care, treatment or the protection of the community or for the prevention of the unlawful entry of any person into Sierra Leone or effecting expulsion, extradition or other lawful removal of that person from Sierra Leone among others.
According to the constitution, these are the conditions under which one could be arrested, investigated and arraigned. CSP Turay and others might have fallen under the category of reasonable suspicion of being about to commit a treason as alleged by the state. However, the detainees have to be brought on trial without further delay.
The constitutional provision to a large extent resonates with UK’s Habeas Corpus writ of the centuries which required one who held another in custody to bring him before a competent judicial authority to assess the cause of detention within the legal framework. The Habeas Corpus was backed up by the Magna Carta Bill of 1215 that formed the basis of civil liberties and freedoms and human rights throughout the centuries in the UK.
The country survived through the ages on the basis of such freedom.
Since Sierra Leone was colonised by the UK, the country borrows much of their laws, rules and customs from Britain as reflected in the enactment of the 1991 Constitution.
Aside from the Constitutional provisions, exponents of the rule of law will not condone the evil effects of arrest and detention without just cause. Professor A.V. Diecy who wrote extensively on the rule of law argued that the notion rested on three distinct but interrelated meanings: Supremacy of the law, equality before the law and recognition and protection of fundamental human rights.
The first meaning which hinges on supremacy of the law connotes that no one should be made to suffer in mind or body without a distinct breach of the law. This means nobody should be jailed or detained on the whims and caprices of the power holders but for a wrong prohibited by law.
Legal experts argue further that even if someone is accused of having committed an offence, the principle of presumption of innocence comes in to protect the detainee’s rights. The principle says one is said to be innocent of a crime until a court finds him guilty.
For a guilty verdict to be accepted as fair, the court must be one in which defence rights are guaranteed and presided over by a competent and independent judicial authority. This principle which has been the basis of police investigations and court trials has been held in high esteem by all judicial authorities including those in civilised jurisdictions such as UK, US and other countries in Europe.
Sierra Leone too has upheld this principle over the years, but it is not seen to be applied to Yaetay Yaetay and other police and military officers who are currently in custody.
The second limb of the rule of law principle is also germane to the detainees’ situation which is about equality before the law. The limb says that all citizens are equal in the eyes of the law regardless of social standing.
Either one is poor or rich, illiterate or literate and high or low, they must be accorded equal privileges provided by the law. One’s tribe, region, political affiliation or opinion should not be considered in the interpretation of the law.
However, CSP Turay and other police officers who are in custody do not enjoy the legal protection which is always accorded to those from other regions of the country. In the third meaning which is about the recognition and protection of fundamental human rights, the detainees have also missed out on it. Their rights are at Stake as long as they remain in custody without arraignment.
Detention of persons beyond the maximum period is an abuse of their human rights especially movement. If the law says 10 days, the person arrested must be brought before a court, and custodians still continue to hold him in detention after the expiration of legally recognised period, there is no way government can evade claims of human rights abuse.
It is the same as saying that until Yaetay Yaetay and others are produced in a court for trial, it is safe to say their rights are being abused by state agents whose duty is to safeguard the safety, liberty and human rights of their people.
Human rights abuse is dangerous but more dangerous for a country that is deficient in compensation schemes for victims of human rights abuse. Until Sierra Leone improves on its human rights culture, it will be difficult for Sierra Leone to enjoy peace. The words of late UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan are relevant to Sierra Leone’s current situation when he says “recognition and respect for human rights is the foundation of peace and security anywhere in the world.”