Rebel leaders found guilty in first verdicts from UN-backed court in Sierra Leone

The United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) today issued its first verdicts, finding three former rebel leaders guilty of multiple counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the West African country’s prolonged civil war in the 1990s.

Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were each found guilty on 11 charges, including committing acts of terrorism, murder, rape and enslavement and conscripting children under the age of 15 into armed groups.

The three men, former leaders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a group of Sierra Leonean soldiers who allied themselves with the notorious rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during the civil war, were each acquitted on three other charges, including sexual slavery and forced marriage.

Justice Julia Sebutinde, the presiding judge in the trials, read out the verdicts today at a hearing in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. A sentencing hearing has been set for 16 July.

Today’s judgements are not only the first from the Special Court, but they mark the first time that an international tribunal has ruled on the charge of recruitment of child soldiers into an armed force and on the crime of forced marriage in an armed conflict.

Mr. Brima, Mr. Kamara and Mr. Kanu were indicted separately in 2003 but in February 2004 the Court’s trial chamber ordered that the three men be tried together.

The SCSL, the second international war crimes tribunal established in Africa, was mandated to try those bearing the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian and Sierra Leonean law within Sierra Leone's borders since 30 November 1996.