Special Court rejects Taylor’s appeal

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The Appeals Chamber of the Special Court of Sierra Leone has rejected the appeal case filed by Prince Taylor investigator of the Court against his contempt conviction and 2-1/2 year prison sentence on the grounds that motion was not properly filed before the Chamber. In the judgment signed by the three -member panel of the Appeals Chamber consisting of Justice Emmanuel Ayoola (presiding), Justice Renate Winter and Justice Jon Kamanda they noted that the Defence had filed its Notice of Appeal on 22 February 2013 unaccompanied by the appeal submissions, which is contrary to the procedure set out in the Practice Direction and the submissions were only filed with the Court three weeks later Justice Winter, who read out the judgment summary, said that even, had the Defence submissions been accompanied by a late filing form setting out the reasons for the delay, the Chamber could have exercised its discretion whether or not to hear the appeal. Since the Defence had not taken advantage of this remedy, she said, the appeal was not properly before the Court. The Judges consequently dismissed the appeal in its entirety. The Appeal Judgment was delivered in The Hague and streamed to Freetown by video link. Prince Taylor and his lawyer participated in the proceedings from the Special Court’s Courtroom No. 1. Prince Taylor, a former Special Court Defence investigator, was found guilty on 25 January 2013 on five counts of interfering with Special Court witnesses. Four of the counts alleged that he had “otherwise interfered” with Prosecution witnesses who had testified against former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The Court found that Prince Taylor, through former RUF member Eric Koi Senessie, attempted to induce the four witnesses to recant their testimony. The fifth count alleged that Prince Taylor had interfered with Eric Koi Senessie at a time when he was a potential witness in contempt proceedings before the Chamber. On 8 February 2013, Prince Taylor was sentenced to a 2-1/2 years prison sentence. The Defence had appealed on four grounds against the judgement, and on two grounds against the sentence.

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