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| |  | | Brima Bazzy Kamara | | | context : | Sierra Leone  | | judgement place : | Sierra Leone Special Court | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone began on 7 March 2005; found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 45 years in prison on 19 July 2007; sentence confirmed on appeal on 22 February 2008 | | position : | According to the indictment, a senior member of the «Armed Forces Revolutionary Council» (AFRC) |
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| | | | Messrs Kallon and Kamara filed a preliminary appeal on 16 June 2003 and 22 September 2003 respectively, arguing that the government of Sierra Leone was tied to the amnesty granted by Article IX of the Lomé Accord of 7 July 1999 and that the Court should not be in a position to prosecute a crime having been committed prior to this Accord.
The Appeals Court rejected the appeal on 13 March 2004.
The Lomé Accord stipulates under Article IX that “ …the government of Sierra Leone should ensure that no official or judicial action be undertaken…”. The Appeal Court judged that this referred to measures undertaken by Sierra Leone and not, as in the case in question, measures taken by the international community.
The Court of Appeal judged that the granting of an amnesty is part of the sovereign prerogatives of a State and is closely linked to the power of the State to exercise its criminal jurisdiction.
In a situation where universal jurisdiction exists to prosecute a crime, a State cannot deprive another the right to exercise this competence by granting amnesties. This is why it is unrealistic to consider a national amnesty as universally applicable in a situation where international crimes, involving universal jurisdiction, are concerned. A State cannot simply set these crimes aside when other States have the competence to try them. According to the Appeals Court, granting amnesty for crimes such as defined in Articles 2 and 4 of the SCSL Statute, is in breach of the international obligation to try such crimes.
Thus, the Lomé Accord does not constitute an obstacle to prosecuting accused persons by an International Tribunal or by a third party State. | |    | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Sierra leone | | | date of birth : | | | 07.05.1968 | | | last time seen : | | | Freetown (Sierra Leone) | | | period of charges : | | | 30.11.1996 - 09.2000 | | | judgement period : | | | 07.03.2003 - 22.02.2008 | | | charges : | | | Crimes against humanity
War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 04.03.2008 |
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