January 11, 2021
By: James Kamara-Manneh
Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad are heartened by news of the appointment of Justice Miatta Maria Samba JA as elected International Criminal Court judge for ten years tenure.
Justice Samba was among twenty candidates across the globe to have been earmarked for the enviable position.
The ICC Advisory Committee on Nomination of Judges based the appointment on merit that took cognizance of her qualifications and work experience, it has been confirmed.
Sierra Leone is proud to have two Sierra Leoneans to be elected to two enviable positions, one as ECOWAS Judge-Justice Keikura Bangura J, and the other as an ICC Judge, Justice Miatta Maria Samba JA.
The appointment attests to President Julius Maada Bio’s gender sensitivity and has nominated Justice Miatta Samba, political observers say.
Justice Samba is a graduate from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone Law School. She later sojourned to South Africa to acquire quality education at the University of Pretoria where she obtained her LLM degree from the Centre for Human Rights. As if it was not enough, she also enrolled for another LLM at the Centre for Petroleum Law and Policy, University of Dundee in Scotland. In 2002, Justice Samba worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone in the Office of the Prosecutor and later served with the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) from 2006 to 2010. She had also served as a Senior Prosecutor at the Anti-Corruption Commission. She has been lecturing at the Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone since 2003. Until 2006 she was lecturing Contract Law and from 2017 to present, she lectured Criminal Law. She is also the Chairperson of the Legal Aid Board. She was up to her election Justice of the Court of Appeal.
