Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008

This report chapter examines the prosecution system in Sierra Leone as of 2008, detailing the constitutional roles of the Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, and Director of Public Prosecutions. It highlights systemic failures including the politicization of the judiciary, a severe shortage of qualified legal manpower, and the inadequacy of police prosecutors in summary courts. The document calls for legislative updates to the Criminal Procedures Act of 1965 and structural reforms to separate the political and professional functions of the Attorney-General's office.

• The prosecution system in Sierra Leone is governed by the Constitution of 1991 and the Criminal Procedures Act of 1965, but the latter is considered obsolete, still using terminology such as 'Crown' and 'Crown Counsel'.
• The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) possesses the power of nolle prosequi, which allows for the discontinuation of criminal proceedings before judgment; the report notes this power is susceptible to abuse in politically sensitive cases.
• Due to a shortage of skilled legal manpower, police officers are authorized to prosecute non-indictable offences in Magistrates’ Courts, but their effectiveness is hindered by poor education, lack of legal knowledge, and a lack of diligence.
• There is a critical shortage of police prosecutors, with only approximately 85 officers serving the 14 districts of Sierra Leone, which is deemed inadequate for the volume of non-indictable offences.
• The Law Officers’ Department suffers from a severe dearth of State Counsels, employing only about 23 persons. This under-capacity is attributed to remuneration packages that discourage private sector legal practitioners from joining the public sector.
• The prosecution process is heavily influenced by politics because the Attorney-General also serves as the Minister of Justice and is a political appointee, leading to a trend where opposition members are more likely to be prosecuted than ruling party members.
• Several systemic constraints impede the dispensation of justice, including inadequate government funding, poor witness protection mechanisms that lead to witness fear of reprisals, and a lack of logistical support such as vehicles for transporting prisoners.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (2009). Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008. https://issafrica.org/chapter-3-prosecution/chapter-3-prosecution

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008. 2009. https://issafrica.org/chapter-3-prosecution/chapter-3-prosecution.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008 |date=May 2009 |url=https://issafrica.org/chapter-3-prosecution/chapter-3-prosecution |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudies2009sierra, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Sierra Leone: A country review of crime and criminal justice, 2008}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2009}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.org/chapter-3-prosecution/chapter-3-prosecution}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }