Judiciary of Sierra Leone Communications, Main Law Courts Building, Freetown, 9th March 2022: Judges of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone have in a Plenary meeting in The Hague, Netherlands elected Justice Pierre G. Boutet to a two-year term as Residual Special Court President and Supreme Court’s Justice Emmanuel Ekundayo Roberts as Vice President.
Justice Boutet now succeeds Sierra Leone’s Justice Jon Kamanda while Justice Emmanuel Ekundayo Roberts succeeds Justice Teresa Ann Doherty.
Sierra Leone’s Chief Justice His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards was elected Staff Appeal Judge, succeeding Justice Emmanuel Ekundayo Roberts.
This is the first time the Judges have met in person since 2018 due to travel restrictions resulting from the Covid- 19 pandemic. The Plenary meeting lasted for three days.
Justice Roberts was appointed a Roster Judge of the Residual Special Court in 2013. He became a Judge of Sierra Leone Supreme Court in 2014. He had previously been a Judge of the Court of Appeal.
He received his LLB from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, in 1989 and his BL in 1990 from the Sierra Leone Law School. He also holds an LLM from Duke University North Carolina, USA.
From 2003 to 2007, he worked as a Legal Consultant at the Law Officers Department in Freetown. Since 2005, he has also been a Lecturer in Civil Procedure at the Sierra Leone Law School. In 2010, he was made a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards was appointed a Roster Judge of the Residual Special Court in 2016. In 2018, he was appointed Chief Justice of Sierra Leone. He was appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal in 2015. He had previously served as a High Court Judge since 2006.
He obtained a Bachelor of Laws degree from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone in 1989. A year later, on 20th December 1990, he was part of the first set of students enrolled at the Sierra Leone Law School and became the first winner of the Criminal Procedure prize.
Justice Edwards holds an LLM in International Dispute Resolution from the University of London.
He also holds a Master in Business Administration from the Institute of Public Administration (IPAM), University of Sierra Leone.
In 2014, he became a member of the World Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and currently a leading expert in the field of Arbitration in the country.
The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone is responsible for the ongoing legal obligations of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which concluded its mandate in December 2013.
These obligations include supervision of prison sentences, witness protection and support, maintenance a preservation of the archives, and assistance to national prosecution authorities.
