November 4, 2016 By the Public Relation Unit of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone
Chief Justice of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone, Hon. Justice Abdulai Hamid Charm and the Chairperson of the Bail and Sentencing Working Group, Hon. Justice N. C. Browne-Marke – Justices of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone on 31st October, 2016 at the chamber of the Chief Justice, Main Law Court Building, received the Political Affairs Officer of the US Embassy, Gregory Maggio and a team from the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs ( INL)- Huber Parsons and Program Management Specialist -Meghan Welsh.
The purpose of the visit was for the Program Officer from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Huber Parsons and his team to acquaint themselves with the level of progress made under the Bail and Sentencing Project, implemented by the Judiciary of Sierra Leone in close collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Updating the team, Chairperson of the Bail and Sentencing Working Group, Justice Browne-Marke said the project, from its inception stage to now, was in good footing and was in line with the designed and time frame.
He noted that the overall activities including the development of new bail and sentencing instruments and piloting an electronic case management system were in progress.
Chief Justice of the Judiciary of Sierra Leone, Hon. Justice Abdulai Hamid Charm, said the draft instruments have been submitted to the Rules of Court Committee (RCC) for further improvement before finalization and onward submission to the Ministry of Justice for drafting and subsequently tabling in Parliament
The Chief Justice said progress made so far was one of the key pathways to holistic justice, as the end product would ensure that people who may later be found innocent of an offense were not incarcerated, while those who had committed offenses would not be threats to their communities.
“However, it is vital to note that the end product of the Bail and Sentencing policy, when enacted, would ensure that judges and magistrates in various courts adopt a uniform approach to bail and sentencing, as well as providing the basis of exercising their boundaries of discretions in determining the severity or flexibility of the sentence,” he expressed.
Program Officer from the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Huber Parsons told the Chief Justice that he was pleased with the progress made so far, and that INL was committed to ensuring that the project achieves it intended goals.
The Chief Justice and Justice Browne-Marke informed the team that the project has contracted the services of a Public Relations Officer who is currently developing outreach materials including jingles that would be disseminated at the appreciate time.
The team was accompanied by Walter Neba and Louise Aaen from UNDP, Rule of Law Programme.