Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06FREETOWN460
2006-06-05 17:46:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Freetown
Cable title:
NEW SPECIAL COURT PRESIDENT FAVORS TAYLOR
how-toVZCZCXRO8292 PP RUEHPA DE RUEHFN #0460 1561746 ZNY CCCCC ZZH P 051746Z JUN 06 FM AMEMBASSY FREETOWN TO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0147 RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9893 INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L FREETOWN 000460
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR AF/W, S/CT
USUN FOR A HILLMAN
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2016
TAGS: PREL KAWC SL NL
SUBJECT: NEW SPECIAL COURT PRESIDENT FAVORS TAYLOR
TRANSFER, TRIAL CHAMBER RETENTION, QUICK APPEALS
C O N F I D E N T I A L FREETOWN 000460
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR AF/W, S/CT
USUN FOR A HILLMAN
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2016
TAGS: PREL KAWC SL NL
SUBJECT: NEW SPECIAL COURT PRESIDENT FAVORS TAYLOR
TRANSFER, TRIAL CHAMBER RETENTION, QUICK APPEALS
1. (C) On June 5, Ambassador and PolOff met with the new
presiding judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone Appeals
Chamber (and President of the Special Court),Justice George
Gelaga King, who just took up a one-year term of office.
King thanked the Ambassador for the U.S. financial
contribution to the Court and assured him that the AFRC, RUF,
and CDF trials are moving forward expeditiously.
2. (U) King said that once the appeals chamber starts its
work in earnest, he plans on the process being speedier than
the war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia or Rwanda. King said
he is hoping to finish appeals for all three cases within 18
months, but it would require the appeals judges to work
"around the clock." (Note: The appeals chamber currently gets
paid by the day when it is called on to make occasional
interlocutory decisions. The process requires the judges to
correspond with one another over the internet and is "not
convenient," King said. End Note.)
3. (C) King said that he is following in his predecessor's
(Justice Raja Fernando from Sri Lanka) footsteps in arranging
to transfer former Liberian President and Court indictee
Charles Taylor to The Hague for security reasons. King said
that the Government of Sweden has now agreed to take Taylor
after he is tried, which removes the main obstacle to his
transfer. King said that if the trial is to be held in the
Hague that it would be important for the proceedings to be
accessible to Sierra Leoneans, but agreed that holding the
Taylor trial in Freetown would leave open the possibility of
violence and disruption as well as an unproductive
distraction from the 2007 presidential and parliamentary
elections.
4. (U) King said that the AFRC trial chamber has been
designated to hear the Taylor case. King said that the
judges have made impressive progress in the AFRC trial so far
and that they have done a good job in ensuring due process is
observed while also moving the case forward expeditiously.
The judges, he said, have made meticulous rulings, which
makes them resistant to appeal.
5. (C) Comment: King's comments were about what we expected
regarding the progress of the Court and Taylor's transfer,
but his plans for the AFRC trial chamber differ from what
ex-Prosecutor Desmond de Silva has said about the issue in
the past. De Silva made it clear that he hoped that the
Court would retain only Judge Teresa Doherty from the AFRC
trial chamber and recruit different, "more competent" judges
for the Taylor case. King clearly disagrees. End Comment.
HULL
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR AF/W, S/CT
USUN FOR A HILLMAN
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/04/2016
TAGS: PREL KAWC SL NL
SUBJECT: NEW SPECIAL COURT PRESIDENT FAVORS TAYLOR
TRANSFER, TRIAL CHAMBER RETENTION, QUICK APPEALS
1. (C) On June 5, Ambassador and PolOff met with the new
presiding judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone Appeals
Chamber (and President of the Special Court),Justice George
Gelaga King, who just took up a one-year term of office.
King thanked the Ambassador for the U.S. financial
contribution to the Court and assured him that the AFRC, RUF,
and CDF trials are moving forward expeditiously.
2. (U) King said that once the appeals chamber starts its
work in earnest, he plans on the process being speedier than
the war crimes tribunals for Yugoslavia or Rwanda. King said
he is hoping to finish appeals for all three cases within 18
months, but it would require the appeals judges to work
"around the clock." (Note: The appeals chamber currently gets
paid by the day when it is called on to make occasional
interlocutory decisions. The process requires the judges to
correspond with one another over the internet and is "not
convenient," King said. End Note.)
3. (C) King said that he is following in his predecessor's
(Justice Raja Fernando from Sri Lanka) footsteps in arranging
to transfer former Liberian President and Court indictee
Charles Taylor to The Hague for security reasons. King said
that the Government of Sweden has now agreed to take Taylor
after he is tried, which removes the main obstacle to his
transfer. King said that if the trial is to be held in the
Hague that it would be important for the proceedings to be
accessible to Sierra Leoneans, but agreed that holding the
Taylor trial in Freetown would leave open the possibility of
violence and disruption as well as an unproductive
distraction from the 2007 presidential and parliamentary
elections.
4. (U) King said that the AFRC trial chamber has been
designated to hear the Taylor case. King said that the
judges have made impressive progress in the AFRC trial so far
and that they have done a good job in ensuring due process is
observed while also moving the case forward expeditiously.
The judges, he said, have made meticulous rulings, which
makes them resistant to appeal.
5. (C) Comment: King's comments were about what we expected
regarding the progress of the Court and Taylor's transfer,
but his plans for the AFRC trial chamber differ from what
ex-Prosecutor Desmond de Silva has said about the issue in
the past. De Silva made it clear that he hoped that the
Court would retain only Judge Teresa Doherty from the AFRC
trial chamber and recruit different, "more competent" judges
for the Taylor case. King clearly disagrees. End Comment.
HULL