Justice Abdul Rahman Mansaray has sentenced a man to death for sexually penetrating a four-year-old girl and triangulating her to death.
Initially on September 28, 2020, the Jury in the matter had returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on Ransford Nicol, the convict in the matter, who had initially been accused of murder and sexually penetrating the four-year-old child. The crime took place at Dembellia Sinkunia Chiefdom in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone on November 18, 2019. The High Court Criminal Sessions commenced on August 31, 2020, and will end on October 26, 2020.
So far, 42 accused persons have been convicted for Sexual Penetration in just a month. This is part of the Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards’ desire to take Justice to the doorsteps of every citizen, as envisioned by President Julius Maada Bio.
Sierra Leone is a de facto abolitionist country of the death penalty, having carried out its last execution in 1998.
In May 2014, the Government of Sierra Leone committed before the United Nations Committee against Torture to abolishing capital punishment in law and to commuting the country’s last death row prisoners to life imprisonment. Despite this commitment, the country is still sentencing individuals to death.
While Sierra Leone has ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1996, it has yet to ratify its Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (ICCPR-OP2).
As of May 2019, there were 48 men and two women on death row in Sierra Leone. Of the 48 men, 30 were convicted of murder, 11 received a mandatory death sentence for aggravated robbery, and seven were on death row for other offenses, according to data from Death Penalty World.
30/09/2020. ISSUE NO: 7920