Elkass Sannoh
The Judiciary of Sierra Leone in a statement issued on the 28th January 2022 said it wishes to inform the general public that it will hold a nationwide, Access to Justice Through Judicial Week scheduled to commence on the 31st January 2022 and will last up to the 4th February 2022 with the aim of increasing access to justice and decongest Correctional Centres across the country.
According to the Information Wing of the Judiciary, the Access to Justice Through a Judicial Week is one of the initiatives of the current administration provided by the Honourable Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards, to enhance access to justice and to further decongest correctional centers by ensuring that inmates/accused persons or some convicted persons have the opportunity to be heard and have their cases reviewed by specific Judges deployed across the country by the Honourable Chief Justice.
Following a stakeholders meeting involving the Judiciary, Sierra Leone Correctional Centers, Legal Aid Board, Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Sierra Leone Police, it was discovered that a good number of inmates had issues bothering on access to Justice.
Out of a total number of one thousand and thirteen (1,013), 111 of these inmates had been incarcerated awaiting trial without indictments; 138 on prolonged adjournments due to lack of empanelled jurors, 181 on bail but unable to fulfill their bail conditions to secure their release, 47 were serving unjustifiable and disproportionate sentences from Magistrates with no Summary Review application in their favour and 532 were incarcerated with no admission to bail for possible bail-able offences.
The Judiciary maintains that as a means of addressing those issues, 26 Judges will be deployed across the country further revealing that during the Judicial Week, a total of 1,013 inmates would be given the opportunity to have their incarcerations reviewed in Prison Courts holden outside the Correctional facilities and those without indictments been given opportunity for their cases to be dealt with expeditiously or as the justice of case may require.
Pursuant to the above, the Judiciary added, there will be one-week recess across the country where all other Court matters will not be heard except for those matters to be dealt with during the Judicial Week.
In effect, as stated by the Judiciary, no Court sitting will take place because the Judges will be using all the Courts across the country to expedite the process in a transparent manner.
