July 12, 2017 By Memunatu Bangura
Legal Aid Board (LAB), with support from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has yesterday started a two-day national workshop for staff and partners on the roll out of the draft regulation of the bail and sentencing policy at British Council Auditorium in Freetown.
Giving the purpose of the workshop, Executive Director of LAB –Sierra Leone, Fatmata Claire-Hanciles, said the workshop was first in a series of training for the finalization of the draft new regulation on bail and sentencing policy for the promotion of access to justice and the Rule of Law.
She said the training was undertaken by LAB in partnership with other justice and Rule of law institutions in the country, adding that with support from UNDP, the judicial system was more poised to make justice accessible in a fairly and timely manner.
According to her, the operationalisation of LAB in 2015 was in response to the challenges confronting access to accessible, timely, available and affordable justice and legal aid service for low -income people and vulnerable groups in the country.
The Executive Director said over the years, LAB has struggled with the current provision in the 1991 Constitution on bail and sentence.
“Over the past two years, we have advocated for other forms of sentencing that will promote community empowerment, reintegration and provide for rehabilitation of correctional centre inmates,” she said.
Claire-Hanciles said the workshop would provide a unique opportunity for staff to have an in-depth knowledge on the new regulations and how it should be applied with the law, adding that it would deal with justification for arrest and detention, right to bail, bail and guideline and international best practice among others.
She stated that the workshop would be rolled out across the four regions and would also target one hundred and seventy participants with an additional of key individuals, where necessary, noting that they would ensure that legal counsel, paralegals, volunteers in community advisory bureaus, and trusted partners, were fully aware of the new bail and sentencing policy.
Giving an overview of the bail and sentencing guideline, Justice Ivan Sesay, said the need to ensure justice was done to all sides to a dispute has resulted in the need to introduce a more modern way for the judiciary to go about its business.
Justice Sesay said it involves the gradual moving away from the hundred percent reliance on paper to a steady move in making use of technological advancement and to the introduction of an electronics case management system.
He explained that bail regulations were essential to guide Judges, Magistrates and Judicial officers in the application of the bail provision of the Criminal Procedure Act, 2017.
Justice Sesay continues that the bail regulation fundamentally sought to ensure that the bail decision process complies with the requirement of the Constitution.
He further stated that sentencing was generally the object of criminal proceeding and a judgement of a court stating the punishment imposed on a defendant, who has pleaded guilty to a crime or being guilty by the jury.