Fleeing the Jurisdiction

I’m increasingly noticing that all is not fair in love and war crimes at the Special Court. There is a clear disparity in the resources and precedence afforded the prosecution and defence limbs of the institution. To some degree, this is undoubtedly a legacy of the planning of international criminal hearings. Defence has previously been an occupation taken up entirely outside the closed set of the court - to the degree, I’m told, that members of the defence at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia were until recently not so much as allowed to use the canteen, let alone procure office space and support.

The Special Court here, at least, has moved with the times to admit a Defence Office organisationally situated under the Registry. Though this does, in some sense, acknowledge the importance of observing the rights of the accused, the extra layer of attendant bureaucracy – not shared by the freestanding prosecution – is considered by many to be a substantial hindrance to that end. Whilst, in certain circles, it may simply be fashionable to deride the UN bureaucracy, this dysfunction does have ramifications pertinent not only to the lofty ideals of international justice, but more immediately to those who face a life behind bars.

Whilst still a long way from the risible ‘cash for conviction’ model apparently in play presently in Iraq, it appears that here also, the formal presumption of innocence is, for an influential few, worth lip service only. Surely, if the process is to lay some collective ghosts to rest for the people of Sierra Leone, rather than serving only as a sterile legal ornament, it must be evenhanded and beyond reproach. What lesson in negating impunity would otherwise be delivered by a failure to adequately exercise fundamental tenets of the rule of law?

On a different note, spent much of my weekend eating the freshest of fish at the beach, overcoming my grimacing disaffection for Star beer and feeling oddly disturbed by the flock of vultures that gathers on the rusting tin of the tenements below my window. They have their eyes on me, I tell you. Pleasant dinner with an American capital case defender, who skipped as lightly as I imagine is possible over the personal impact of having a client executed. Whilst not a feature of UN-sponsored instruments such as the Special Court, the death penalty is, mind you, still on the books in Sierra Leone.