By: Saidu Jalloh (Intern)
The Director of Communication of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone Elkass Sannoh has debunked rumors that there were specific judges assign to handle political case which he considered untrue, baseless and unfounded. He made the clarification on the 5th September 2023 at Radio Democracy ‘Good Morning Sloan Show’ New England Ville, Freetown.
Before debunking the rumor, Sannoh made certain progress that the Judiciary has accomplished under the dispensation of President Maada Bio.
He maintains that, there were no preferential treatment given to any political parties, they treated them all equally in the capacity that they were serving. He made example of how the law works.
“If you are a politician and you break a traffic law and you are brought you before the court, we will give you the same treatment given to ordinary citizens or commercial drivers who break the same law,” he noted.
He continued that “ln 2018, the Sierra Leone Judiciary received 31 petition cases from three political parties, APC, SLPP and NGC. APC as the main opposition won more cases than the ruling party SLPP. “
The director of communication said that Samura Kamara’s candidature was challenged by SLPP that he is a ‘Two-Sim Holder’ or double citizenship. He was not qualified to contest for the 2018 Presidential election same with Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella. The court presided over the matter and delivered a judgment.
He also asserted that Paul Kamara and Reverend Almamy Kamara challenge again Samura Kamara candidature in court but because of none compliance of the case at supreme court the case was thrown out.
“If supposedly we are favoring the ruling part the opposition will not have won more cases than them,” he added, and further that “the purpose of the judiciary week is to increase access to justice, to help decongest the prison, to help the judiciary clear backlog of cases and to administer justice to cases that have been stall for many years because of no compliance, so that people can move on with their lives,” he explained.
He further that, there were 802 cases assigned to 23 judges in which two are supreme court judges with several years of expertise and knowledge in the law. “The two supreme court judges not only play supervising role but they also preside over cases,” he pointed.
Sannoh said the 101 cases of the 802 cases have no traces, people file complain and don’t do follow up on cases or when the court refuses bail the complainant will stop coming to court because many people intention of filing a case is to see the alleged victim or accused person (s) go to prison, ‘such attitude is holding up our court system.’
He pointed out that some cases have no sureties, and the Judiciary put out press release for 29 sureties that were gone missing. He added that the whole purpose of granting the accused person bail is for the availability of the accused person or the surety to provide the accused person anytime the court needs them.
“There was a time when the master and the registrar had to hire vehicle to find sureties all over the country, some sureties would have provided fake addresses, and some will not show up again or provide the accused person. These are some of the problems the judiciary is receiving blames for,” he said.
He explained that there operation was different to that of the Correctional Center; there operation was to administer justice and not to look or cater for the well-being of inmates.
“My office is open to the public for any concerns or matter you want the court to address or if the public want to make recommendations to help build the justice system. We are open for that. I know we have challenges, the Chief Justice is practicing an open Justice system, you can ask for any information instead of you to rely on hearsay that will affect the justice system,” he ended.
