SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE: NEW SPECIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 FREETOWN 001028

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/17/2016
TAGS: KJUS PREL PGOV PHUM SL
SUBJECT: SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE: NEW SPECIAL
PROSECUTOR AND USG VISITORS


Classified By: AMBASSADOR THOMAS N. HULL FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D).

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SUMMARY
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1. (C) The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) recently
announced the appointment of Stephen Rapp as the new Special
Prosecutor. Mr. Rapp called on the Ambassador December 14.
In separate visits by AF/W Director Phil Carter on November
15 and Special Advisor to the Ambassador-at-Large for War
Crimes Mark Stamilio on December 7, SCSL officials raised
issues along common themes, including Court funding levels,
the pace of trials, resources for the defense, preparations
for the Charles Taylor Case, and indications of a possible
delay from the planned April 2 start date for the Taylor
trial. Meetings included the Court's president, Prosecutor's
office, Registrar, and representatives from the Defender's
office. The Court has completed one trial and will begin the
Charles Taylor and continue the RUF trials next year. All
SCSL officials expressed strong appreciation for continuing
USG support for the Court. END SUMMARY.

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AMBASSADOR MEETS SCSL NEW SPECIAL PROSECUTOR
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2. (C) On December 14, the Ambassador met with new Special
Prosecutor Stephen Rapp. Rapp assured the Ambassador that
his office would work closely with S/WCI, and that after the
Status Conference on January 26, he would speak to the
Department about funding issues. The Ambassador said that
the funding issue remains unclear while we are under a
continuing resolution, and that the Department is discussing
approaches to avoid zeroing out ESF to Sierra Leone in order
to support the Court. The Ambassador encouraged Rapp to
pursue other donors and cautioned him that fundraising could
be a large distraction. Rapp informed the Ambassador that
he would likely travel to Washington with President of the
Court Justice Gelaga-King in January. The Ambassador also
encouraged Rapp to keep Acting Prosecutor Chris Staker on
staff as his deputy, both for continuity and for Staker's
expertise in appeals. Rapp responded that he was interested
in retaining Staker.


3. (C) The Ambassador raised the status of the fund for
protection of witnesses that the USG had funded. Rapp was
unaware of this fund and said he would ask the Chief of
Investigations for details.

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AF/W DIRECTOR MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OF THE SCSL
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4. (C) On November 15, AF/W Director Phil Carter met with
President of the SCSL Justice Gelaga-King at the Special
Court's compound in Freetown. King reported that the Court
was discovering a number of administrative challenges in the
upcoming trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor,
and that he was keenly aware that the Court needed to show
that it was continuing to move forward efficiently. Carter
encouraged King to keep all trials on track with no
surprises according to the completion strategy and commended
the Court's groundbreaking work for adding value to the
democratization process in Sierra Leone.


5. (C) King said that the Court was developing a revised
completion strategy to ensure that it stayed on course and
that a number of proposed changes would make the Court
"leaner and meaner." He noted proposals to have the
President of the Court reside in Sierra Leone full-time, and
that appeals judges would live in Sierra Leone next year
saving considerable travel time and expenses. He assured
Carter that the judges were committed to expediting the
trials and staying within the completion strategy. He added
that the Court continued to face funding difficulties and
that the voluntary funding process by donors had not worked.
He explained that without a guaranteed funding stream,
long-term planning was impeded and staff retention was
weakened. He ended the meeting by expressing his
appreciation for USG support for the Court.

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MEETINGS WITH THE REGISTRAR
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6. (C) On November 15, AF/W Director Carter met with
Registrar Lovemore Munlo, who assured him that the Court was
sticking to a reasonable time frame and operating
efficiently despite considerable constraints. Munlo said
that the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) case,
which started in March 2005, and the Civil Defense Force

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(CDF) case, begun in June 2004, had finished in Trial
Chamber Two, and estimated that the Justices would take
three to four months to write judgments. (Note: Closing
arguments were held on December 8, as planned.)


7. (C) Munlo told Carter that the Court's management team
had decided to use Trial Chamber Two to try the Taylor case
in The Hague. He anticipated that the Taylor case would
start around early April and would last 24 to 30 months.
Munlo planned to travel to The Hague to sign an agreement and
negotiate funding for security for the trial. The ICC was
insisting on separate funding to provide security and had
proposed charging by the hour, which would be extremely
costly. He planned to discuss alternative billing options
for security.


8. (C) Munlo said that if the judgments for the AFRC and
CDF judgments were written next year, that would only leave
the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) case, begun in July

2004. He estimated that the RUF trial would conclude during

2008.


9. (C) Munlo told Carter that there was a great reluctance
by African countries to provide prison facilities for anyone
convicted by the Court, but that the UK had agreed to take
Taylor. He said that if no other countries step forward,
the Court would probably need USG assistance to encourage
other countries to take the prisoners.


10. (C) Munlo complained that donor support continued to
wane, and that the Court only had enough funding to last
until early March 2007. He said that the management
committee had devised a backup plan to streamline Court
operations, and that before it went to donors to seek
additional assistance, would write a completion strategy by
July 2007. When asked for a ballpark funding figure, Munlo
responded that he would be better able to provide a final
figure in 2007. He noted that the Court had already begun
to scale back on staffing. Carter suggested that the
management committee more aggressively pursue donors and
reiterated USG support for the Court. Munlo said that the
Court's President, Justice Gelaga-King, would visit
Washington in January to continue these discussions.


11. (C) Munlo told Special Advisor to the
Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues Mark Stamilio
during their December 7 meeting that the Court was in
unchartered waters as it began groundbreaking operations in
The Hague for the Charles Taylor case. He said that many
challenges lay ahead, including identifying office space,
transferring staff, resolving outstanding technical issues,
and allowing both the prosecution and defense the necessary
time to prepare for trial.


12. (C) Munlo said that the Court would begin transferring
staff to The Hague in March, and that the Taylor case would
probably be delayed possibly as late as July or September to
allow the defense more time to prepare. Stamilio inquired
if the prosecution would oppose the delay. Munlo responded
that the prosecution agreed that the defense needed more
time. For the recently completed CDF and AFRC trials, Munlo
said that the judgments would be finished around April and
May. He also said that the lone remaining trial, for the
RUF, would begin in May.


13. (C) Stamilio asked Munlo about the recent visit of
Judge Antonio Cassese to Freetown. Munlo said that he had
"mixed reactions" to the visit. (Note: Cassese, in his
soon-to-be released assessment report of the Court's
productivity, is critical of the Registrar's performance.)


14. (C) Stamilio reminded Munlo that the Court needed to
continue showing progress, and that the Registrar needed to
exercise stronger leadership to manage the judges. He added
that donor fatigue was likely a product of donors feeling
like the trials had gone on long enough. Munlo responded
that he heard the message "loud and clear."


15. (C) Munlo said that Germany had pledged 1.4 million
Euros but gave specific instructions that the money not be
used for the Taylor case. Stamilio told Munlo that the
Department was still waiting to hear from the Court about a
list of countries the Department should contact on the
Court's behalf for assistance. Stamilio also told Munlo that
discussions amongst various offices in the Department were
ongoing regarding funding. Munlo thanked Stamilio for USG
leadership on the funding issue.

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MEETINGS WITH THE PROSECUTION
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16. (C) In Carter's November 15 meeting with then Acting
Special Prosecutor Chris Staker, Staker hinted that the
Taylor defense team would not be ready to start the trial in
April. He said that he felt that if the Defense requested
an extension, it would be granted one. According to Staker,
a status conference originally planned for the end of October
had been pushed back to January 26. He added that there was
a possibility of slippage in dates of the RUF trial as well.



17. (C) Staker said that there was a push in the CDF trial
to refer the case to the national Courts in the event that
Johnny Paul Koroma was captured following the conclusion of
this trial.


18. (C) Staker sought Carter's views on the best method for
archiving the evidence following the conclusion of the work
of the Court. Staker felt that the evidence could be made
available to other law enforcement agencies to help with
other cases and should be preserved in a way that case files
could be accessed and reconstituted. He offered a number of
general archival ideas, which included setting up an
arrangement between all war crimes tribunals to maintain
records jointly or appointing a permanent institution, like
the ICC, to be the records repository. He mentioned another
possibility of creating a new institution to archive records
or appointing one country to take on archiving
responsibilities. Carter told Staker that he would raise
the issue when he returned to Washington.


19. (C) Stamilio met with Chief of Prosecutions Jim Johnson
on December 7. Johnson said that it was unrealistic that
the Taylor case would start in April, and that the Defense
would file a motion for a start date in September. He added
that Judge Cassese thought that this was acceptable. He
said from the beginning, the preference had been for a July
start date, followed by an August recess, and resumption in
September. He said that the Prosecution would not oppose
the delay, and actually conceded that a summer start date
was reasonable with the amount of necessary preparations.
He thought that it was to the Prosecution's advantage to
start later.


20. (C) Stamilio reiterated that it was necessary to see
progress in the trials as it becomes harder to secure
funding for the Court. He said that the Court risks being
labeled as inefficient since it has not returned any
verdicts in nearly four years. Johnson agreed that the three
cases should have been completed a year ago, but said that
he could appreciate the Defense's plight given the amount of
evidence they received noting, in particular, that the flow
of new information and evidence has increased significantly
since Charles Taylor's capture. He was not overly concerned
that the trial times would be extended further and added
that the better prepared both the Prosecution and Defense
are, the more streamlined the process will be.


21. (C) Johnson mentioned that the Court was starting to
fully grasp the challenges of the Taylor case, many of which
it had not anticipated. He noted many logistical questions,
including how witnesses would travel to trials. Many of the
witnesses are coming from Liberia, but would be afraid to
travel to The Hague via Freetown for fear of reprisals. The
Court would try to keep attorneys, and witnesses, time in
The Hague to a minimum to reduce expenses. He said that the
Court has not ruled out video teleconferencing, but would
probably want most witnesses in the courtroom. Stamilio
suggested that Court officials contact the tribunal in Iraq
for advice on how they handled similar issues.


22. (C) Johnson commented that he had seen a draft of the
soon-to-be released Cassese report that critiqued the
Court's performance. He said that it focused primarily on
needed improvements to communications in the Registrar's
office. He appreciated Cassese's identification of the
challenges ahead in administering a long-distance trial.


23. (C) Johnson said that the decision on a new prosecutor
was welcome, as it will allow other things that had
previously been on hold to fall into place. He concluded
the meeting by requesting assistance in expediting the
numerous requests made by the Special Court for certain USG
personnel to provide expert testimony in the Charles Taylor
case.

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MEETINGS WITH PRINCIPAL DEFENDER'S OFFICE
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24. (C) Deputy Principal Defender Elizabeth Nahamya raised

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defense funding concerns with Carter. She said that
something must be done to provide the defense with
comparable resources to the prosecution. She explained that
the Defense had finalized a contract for Taylor's legal
team, but that there were no funds for the Defense office in
Monrovia for investigations and witnesses. She estimated
that the Defense would need approximately $195,000 per
quarter during the pre-trial stage to pay the bills. She
projected that the trial would cost the defense $3 million:
$1.7 million in 2007; 1.8 million for 2008, and $700,000 for

2009. She said that any extended presence in The Hague
would raise those figures. Unlike Staker, she did not
mention that the Defense had asked for the Taylor trial to
be delayed, and said it would begin April 2. She anticipated
that final judgments would be written in 2009 and appeals
might last four months. Nahamya said that the RUF case would
begin May 2, and judgments would most likely be written in
early to mid 2008.


25. (C) Nahamya said that family members of the defendants
in these trials would suffer hardships if the convicted were
imprisoned outside of Sierra Leone. She argued that this
would preclude large numbers of relatives from visitation.


26. (C) During a December 7 meeting, Principal Defender
Vincent Nmehielle told Stamilio that the main issue for the
Defense was funding equity, and that the credibility of the
whole process would turn on the level of resources made
available to defense counsel. Nmehielle considered the
creation of a Principle Defender's Office an improvement over
earlier tribunals, giving the Defense more independence,
though still not enough independence, in his opinion. He
informed Stamilio that none of the accused had retained
private counsel, but that it was likely that Charles Taylor
would do so, although to this point, no one has been able to
identify assets he may have hidden. Taylor claims to be
indigent. (Comment: Despite what Nmehielle described as
inadequate remuneration for court-appointed defense counsel,
the SCSL has been able to retain fully qualified counsel who
have provided all the defendants effective representation.
End Comment)

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COMMENT
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27. (C) The Court is entering a critical phase as it winds
up the AFRC and CDF trials, and begins the Taylor case and
continues with the RUF trial. In particular, the challenges
presented by the Taylor trial will test the Court's
leadership. Although designed to avoid the difficulties that
previous tribunals have faced, the Court continues to
struggle with operational efficiency and must show progress
to maintain credibility with its donors. As the Court moves
into judgment and appeals processes, it will be important
that it retain staff who possess much-needed institutional
history and experience. END COMMENT.


28. (U) This cable has been cleared by AF/W P. Carter and
S/WCI M. Stamilio.
HULL