By Abass Jalloh
The Sierra Leone Judiciary granted bail to 374 inmates after a review of 870 cases across Sierra Leone. This was done in respect of what they called “Access to Justice through Judicial Week” that commenced from the 31st January to 4th February 2022.
According to the judiciary, 26 Judges were in charge of the process of reviewing and analyzing a myriad of cases in courts nationwide. This was “to increase access to justice and decongesting Correctional Centres across the country”.
A release dated 17th February 2022 by the Judiciary of Sierra Leone said “a total number of eight hundred and seventy cases (870) had the opportunity of their incarcerations being reviewed through prolonged adjournments, bail variation, bail application, summary review, and habeas corpus [an order from the court requiring a person under arrest be brought into court] application.”
The statement confirmed that three hundred and seventy-four (374) inmates were granted bail and got released. Two hundred and fifty-nine (259) of them were in the provinces and one hundred and fifteen (115) in the Western Area.
Initially, the number of incarcerated inmates was 1,013, according to the statement of the Judiciary, adding that the number of inmates later increased to 1,175. It further confirmed that, out of the 1,175, the total number of prolonged adjournments was 134 inmates and out of that 93 inmates were completed.
It is also stated that there was a total number of 104 of what they termed as Summary Review cases, and out of that number, 101 was completed.
Additionally, out of the 103 “habeas corpus” application, accordingly, 78 were completed without indictments, and the outstanding 25 were referred to the Law Officers Department, adding that a total of 234 were discharged across the country.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (21/02/22)
