Prosecuting International Crimes in Africa - PULP - University of ...

Sentencing practice of the Special Court for Sierra Leone 139
sentencing practice of the Sierra Leonean courts are therefore of little
relevance in determining an appropriate sentence, save in relation to the
offences under article 5 of the Statute of the SCSL.
What is also discernible from the sentencing judgments of the SCSL is
that the Trial Chambers did not go to great lengths to adequately explain
the reasons behind their reliance on the sentencing factors so employed.
For example, during the sentencing hearing, Kondewa addressed the court
and the public in the following terms, ‘Sierra Leoneans, those of you who
lost your relations within [sic] the war, I plead for mercy today, and
remorse, and even for yourselves’. 144 In conclusion, the Chamber held that
even though Kondewa did not recognise his own participation in the
crimes for which he was found guilty, the empathy he showed was real and
sincere. It is submitted that the SCSL took a superficial approach to
remorse as a mitigating factor which approach makes the conclusions
arrived at by the Chamber in this particular case inadequate and
unconvincing. Such an important sentencing factor should be approached
with a critical mind and deserves to be properly interrogated before a
determination is made by the court that the remorse shown was a genuine
factor in the case. 145 Even though the Chambers in certain instances
rejected the submission of remorse as a mitigating factor by the defence,
their discussion on the issue of remorse did not reflect the Trial Chamber’s
awareness of the subjective nature of remorse. 146
In the end, the Trial Chamber of the SCSL has tried and convicted a
total of eight people indicted for the heinous crimes committed during the
Sierra Leonean conflict. In the RUF case, Issa Sessay was convicted on
seventeen counts, each carrying a sentence of a minimum of twenty years
with the count carrying the highest sentence being a prison sentence of 51
years to run and be served concurrently. Morris Kallon was convicted on
seventeen counts, each carrying a minimum sentence of fifteen years, the
highest being a prison sentence of 40 years to run and be served
concurrently. Augustine Gbao was convicted of fourteen counts, each
carrying a sentence ranging from a six-year prison sentence to 25 years.
In the AFRC case, Alex Tamba Brima was sentenced to a single term
of imprisonment of 50 years for all the counts he was found guilty of by the
Trial Chamber. Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara was sentenced to a single term of
imprisonment of 40 years for all the counts he was found guilty of and
144 CDF Sentencing judgment para 65.
145 A Teiger ‘Remorse and mitigation in the International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia’ (2003) 16 Leiden Journal of International Law 777, 780.
146 The ICTY on the contrary has been identified as being fully aware of the subjective
nature of remorse as a mitigating factor. In the Jelisić´ case the Court took into account
the accused’s alleged expressions of remorse to a court-appointed psychiatrist. In the
Erdmović case the Chamber cited the testimony of an investigator from the Office of the
Prosecutor of the ICTY who at one point worked closely with the accused and was of
the strong opinion ‘... that the accused’s remorse was genuine and sincere’; see Teiger (n
145 above) 780.