The President of the Sierra Leone Bar Association (SLIBA) Joseph Kamara has in reply to a letter addressed to him by Awareness Times proprietor assured members of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ) and Civil Society that he will ensure the protection of fundamental human rights.
Reacting to an open letter from the publisher of the Awareness Newspaper alleging the interference of the government in the judiciary, the Bar Association President said that “upon careful reading and upon applying the plain and literal rule of the interpretation, the information passed by the president is merely informational and does not constitute a mandatory stipulation, as only mandatory manner and form requirements are binding.”
Kamara said that the judiciary is not bound nor compelled by any stipulated date contained in the letter and that the judiciary is not subject or answerable to neither the executive nor the legislature.
He however noted that a cornerstone principle of democracy is the three arms of government should be kept separate, therefore they will not sit silently by whilst any one or government usurps the role and functions of another arm.
The SLBA president said that where President Koroma shares with the people information he has on a question which has been specifically drawn to his attention and which is clearly a concern for a given section of the citizenry, this cannot be “characterized as interference nor to be interpreted as a compulsive order directed to the judiciary.”
He revealed that it would be the best thing if the announcement of a judgment date should have come from the judiciary itself. The Bar Association President maintained that “if the president on the other hand had arbitrarily and on his own volition, imposed a date for the judgment on the judiciary, then my response would have been entirely different.”
Joseph Kamara stated that the Association denounces any act which has a tendency to extend executive power outside its prescribed boundaries “our interest …and those of the entire nation coincide on the drive to help keep Sierra Leone from sliding back into strife. In no mean way, the separation of powers will assist in these endeavours.”
Meanwhile, Government has also issued a press statement indicating that, “at no time has Government tried to influence the work of the judiciary,” stressing that “Following the conclusion of arguments in the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) case, the association started agitating for the delivery of the judgment which they felt had been unduly delayed taking into account the relevant constitutional provision”.
The release went on, “Government therefore had to take up the concern which they had expressed with the judiciary following which, they had been assured that the judgment would be delivered during the course of the judicial year starting 15th September 2009.”
Government, the release went on “however, reiterate its respect for the rule of law and the independence of the Judiciary and to reaffirm that in the exercise of its judicial functions, the Judiciary shall be subjected only to the constitution or any other law and shall not be subjected to the control or direction of any other person or authority.”
By Betty Milton
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