OWN CORRESPONDENT, Freetown | Monday 10,00pm.
SIERRA Leone’s notorious rebel leader Foday Sankoh appeared in court in Freetown on Monday and pleaded not guilty to nine charges, including murder, treason and crimes against humanity.
Sankoh, the self-confessed leader of the brutal Revolutionary United Front, stood quietly before Justice Samuel Ademosu when all nine counts were read out by the High Court clerk. To each count, Sankoh declared “Not guilty, my lord. I’m innocent.”
Sankoh is accused of masterminding a campaign of terror through the RUF, which has been widely accused of killing and torturing civilians to terrify them into loyalty. Hundreds and perhaps thousands of villagers have been maimed and hacked to death by machete-wielding rebel fighters, whose favourite calling card is to chop off a person’s ears.
Sankoh managed to delay the start of the trial by several weeks, claiming he could find no lawyer to represent him. He was finally permitted by Ademosu to represent himself during the trial.
A 12-person jury will rule on the charges and if found guilty of treason, Sankoh may be sentenced to death.
Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front are allied with Sierra Leone’s military junta that seized power under Jonny Karoma in May 1997. The junta was overthrown in February 1988 by a coalition West African Intervention Force.
Although defeated in the capital, gunmen from the RUF and the former junta continued to wage a guerrilla war in the countryside.
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