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Sierra Leone war crimes court sentences former guerrilla leaders

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Wednesday sentenced former Revolutionary Union Front (RUF) commanders Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao to jail terms of 52, 40, and 25 years, respectively. The three men were each found guilty in February of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the country's civil war. Together, the men were convicted of a total of 46 charges, and sentenced to terms  totaling 1,360 years in prison, but were allowed to serve the terms concurrently. Sesay, Kallon and Augustine are the first three former RUF leaders to be tried by the SCSL, and it is not yet clear if their sentences will be appealed. The Sierra Leone civil war ended in 2002 after 11 years, during which the RUF allegedly killed and mutilated civilians, forcibly recruited child soldiers, and forced many from their homes as villages were burned and destroyed. In 2002, the UN and Sierra Leone jointly established the SCSL to try the leaders believed to be responsible. In October 2007, the SCSL sentenced two former leaders of the Civil Defense Forces to serve six to eight years for "murder, cruel treatment, pillage, and collective punishment." In July 2007, three former leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council were sentenced to 45 years imprisonment on counts of rape, murder, mutilation, pillage, and abducting children to force them to work as soldiers and diamond laborers.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on April 08, 2009 (boomark / email).