UN re-elects Kamanda as President of war crimes court in Sierra Leone

[News_Editor]

UN re-elects Kamanda as President of war crimes court in Sierra Leone

2011-06-10 05:04:19 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations on Thursday announced the re-election of Justice Jon Kamanda as the President of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL).

In this way, Kamada will serve a third term as Presiding Judge of the Appeals Chamber of the UN-backed war crimes tribunal set up to deal with crimes committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone.

In addition, Justice Emmanuel Ayoola of Nigeria has also been re-elected as Vice-President of the special court. The SCSL is an independent tribunal established jointly by Sierra Leone's Government and the UN in 2002.

It was designed to prosecute all those responsible for the atrocities committed in the West African nation after November 30, 1996. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is currently in the defense phase of his trial in The Hague.

On Tuesday, the SCSL charged Eric Senessie with nine counts of attempting to induce prosecution witnesses in the trial of former leader Taylor to recant the testimony they gave before the Court.

The former African leader is accused of fueling Sierra Leone's civil war in the 1990s by allegedly arming rebels in exchange of blood diamonds. Taylor denied all 11 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. A verdict is expected in mid-2011.

Furthermore, the court based in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, charged four people with contempt of court for allegedly interfering with prosecution witnesses who testified in two separate trials.

Two of the individuals charged, Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu, were convicted former leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council which was active in Sierra Leone in the 1990s. The pair is serving lengthy sentences for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Rwanda's Mpanga prison.

The five individuals were charged with two counts of attempting to bribe a witness in regards to his testimony. Kamara faces an additional count of disclosing the name of a protected witness in violation of an order of a Trial Chamber.

Sierra Leone's civil war began in 1991 and ended in 2002 but political stability was not achieved. Tens of thousands of people were killed during the war. The violent armed conflict was marked by militia members who cut off limbs, noses or lips of their victims as well as recruitment of child soldiers.

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