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Sierra Leone war criminal to go free after ending jail term
THE HAGUE, May 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – An ex-Sierra Leone militia leader was
Monday to walk free after serving a 15-year sentence, the first to complete a
term imposed for crimes in the country’s civil war, a UN court said.
The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone “has reached a significant
milestone, with the discharge later today of the first person convicted of
war crimes to complete his full sentence,” it said.
Moinina Fofana was the leader of a notorious paramilitary unit that shot,
hacked and burned to death civilians suspected of collaborating with rebels
during the 1991-2002 conflict in the West African state.
More than 120,000 people died, and thousands of civilians lost limbs, in an
orgy of violence financed largely by blood diamonds.
Fofana was convicted of war crimes in 2007 after a three-year trial at the
UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone and jailed for six years. His term
was then increased to 15 years in 2008 on appeal.
He was granted conditional release in 2015 after serving two-thirds of his
sentence at Mpanga Prison in Kigali, Rwanda.
But he was taken back into custody a year later in the capital of Freetown
for breaching his agreement to “conduct himself honourably and peacefully in
the community” and avoid local politics, the court said. He served the rest
of his term in the southern city of Bo in Sierra Leone.
Fofana ends “his sentence at midnight on Monday,” the court said in a
statement.
Seven other people sentenced by the court are still behind bars, serving
jail terms of between 20 to 52 years.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone, based in The Hague, and its successor
were established by the UN in 2002 to try those who bore “the greatest
responsibility” for the atrocities committed during the civil war.
Its most notorious defendant was former Liberian president Charles Taylor,
now serving 50 years in a British jail for his role in fuelling the civil
conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
Taylor was the first former head of state to be jailed by an international
court since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg in Germany after World War II.
He was convicted in 2012 on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against
humanity over acts committed by Sierra Leone rebels he aided and abetted
during the war.
BSS/AFP/MRI/1744 hrs