Legal Aid wins its First Acquittal from the Appeal Court of Sierra Leone

Legal Aid wins its First Acquittal from the Appeal Court of Sierra Leone

A seventeen-year old boy Lamin Bockarie  from Kenema has had his 15-year sentence for sexual penetration quashed after the Legal Aid Board appealed against his conviction. Lawyer Ivan Sesay of the Legal Aid Board made the case for appeal on Monday, July 4. 

He told the court that the maximum sentence of 15 years slammed on the boy is excessive and incompatible with the Children’s and Young Persons Act which provides a much lower sentence for juvenile offenders. He further noted that the High Court should have considered the fact that the boy is a first-time offender in handing down its sentence.

He also told the court that the conviction is unjust, unrealistic and a nullity in law. He said the High Court did not consider the fact that the Magistrate Court was not properly constituted to preside over the matter.  ‘The case should have been presided over by one Magistrate and two Justices of the Peace,’ he said. ‘However, in this case it was presided over by one Magistrate only.’

The sixteen-year old was arrested in May 2014 after a complaint was lodged against him at the Family Support Unit at the Kenema Police station. The matter was charged to court and he made his first appearance at the Magistrate Court in May 2014. The matter was consequently committed to High Court in June 2014.  

The boy had pleaded not guilty to the offence on his first appearance at the Kenema High Court on July 2015. He later changed his plea to guilty and was sentence to 15-year imprisonment on 25 July 2015. This is despite the fact that he is a juvenile.

The Legal Aid Board became involved with the matter after receiving a request for legal assistance from the boy’s relatives. According the boy’s elder brother who lives at Bo Waterside on the Sierra Leone border with Liberia, they became aware of the Legal Aid Board following a visit to the Pademba Road Correctional Center in August 2015 where the boy was serving his sentence. ‘We were advised to seek legal assistance from the Board by one Musa Lahai who was also visiting an inmate at the Pademba Correctional Center,’ the elder brother said.

The boy’s father and two elder brothers travelled from Kenema to Freetown on Monday, July 11 to hear the court’s ruling. ‘We just cannot thank the Legal Aid Board enough for what they have done for our family,’ the boy’s father said. ‘We are happy that we the poor now have lawyers to defend our rights in court.’

The Executive Director of the Legal Aid Board, Madam Fatmata Claire Carlton-Hanciles has welcomed the verdict of the Court of Appeal which is the first the Board has secured since it started operations in May 2015.

‘We are relieved to have won the appeal because this is the case of a school boy we wanted to get back to school as soon as possible,’ she said.  “I’m proud of my lawyers for this achievement. We will continue to do all that is possible within the law to protect our children and this is why our ‘Child Protection under the Law’ programme is being set-up and will start operations by the end of the month.”

By: Joseph Dumbuya