During the heydays of the Sierra Leone Judiciary, there were resident Magistrates in each of the judicial districts of the country. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case. This article focuses on the need for the Chief Justice to assign more resident Magistrates to the judicial districts in the country, particularly the Bombali District. Currently, there is only ONE resident Magistrate in the Bombali District. He is responsible for presiding over the Magistrate Courts in Makeni City and Kamakwie, Bombali District. Apart from these two areas, he also presides over the Magistrate Court in Kabala town, Koinadugu District. This arrangement, even if initially adopted as a stop-gap measure to address the paucity of Magistrates, has gone on for way too long. It is causing so much discomfort not only for the litigants, but I suspect even for the resident Magistrate. In some sense, it has led to a breach of the constitution and violation of the rights of detainees. There are clear constitutional provisions regarding the length of time a detainee can be held without charge or arraignment before a competent court of law. It ranges from 72 hours to 10 days, depending on the gravity of offence. Article 14(3) of the ICCPR provides that trials for criminal offences must take place without undue delay, but the paucity of qualified and trained Magistrates is undermining its enforcement in Sierra Leone. For detainees who are usually held on remand, it sometimes takes weeks or months before the circuit court sits in their jurisdiction. This is a grave situation that requires urgent response. Police officers in the northern part of the country have told CARL-SL monitors that accused persons are mostly held in police custody without arraignment way more than the constitutionally stipulated period.
With a single Magistrate covering several districts, his inclination to approve long adjournments is understandable. Generally, there are undue delays in trials across the country, and some of the reasons are more than just the dearth of personnel on the bench. So, having a single Magistrate to traverse two districts can only make a matter worse. This, even if unjustifiably, partly explains why most people shy away from filing suits, and may even go overboard in striking out-of-court settlements for some of the most heinous crimes.
Physical access to justice (court facilities) remains a major problem across the country. In the Northern Province, for example, some litigants walk from far-flung communities to attend court sittings in Makeni. Take for example, Fintonia in the Tambaka Chiefdom, which is in the extreme north of Sierra Leone, with Makeni as its judicial district. Given the delays, and the challenges relating to physical access, many litigants stop attending court sessions without getting a verdict. This is certainly unjust.
Apart from the risks that moving from one location to another may pose to the court personnel, such movements have the tendency of undermining their efficiency. While CARL-SL recognizes the challenges confronting the justice sector and appreciates some stop-gap measures adopted to address the challenges, it would like to stress need to consider assigning more Magistrates across the country.
