Murder, aggravated robbery and treason are capital crimes

Murder, aggravated robbery and treason are capital crimes. Sierra Leone, a former British colony, has been dogged by instability for decades. After four years of military rule, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah came to power in February 1996, but was ousted by junior military officers led by Major Johnny Paul Koroma on May 25, 1997. President Kabbah fled to Conakry, Guinea with a large majority of his Government, and the Koroma regime itself was ousted by the Nigerian-led West African Peacekeeping Force (ECOMOG) in February 1998. On October 12, 1998, in Freetown, a court martial sentenced 34 soldiers to death on treason charges for their role in the May 1997 coup and the military junta that supplanted President Kabbah. On October 19, 1998, a firing squad publicly carried out the death sentence on 24 soldiers of the 34 convicted of treason. Thousands of Freetown residents cheered as the 23 men and one woman were shot at a stone quarry on the western outskirts of the capital. Freetown streets were jammed with jubilant residents as news of the executions spread through the teeming capital. Those executed included Brigadier Samuel Koroma, a former chief of defense staff and the brother of fugitive junta leader Johnny Paul Koroma, Corporal Tamba Gborie, the man who announced the coup that toppled Kabbah, and Junta Secretary-General Colonel Abdul Karim Sesay. The woman was Major Kula Samba. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was one of several who unsuccessfully appealed to the Sierra Leone Government for a stay of execution for the officers. The executions are the first death sentences carried out in connection with the coup in May 1997. A number of other trials have been continuing. Trials before courts martial in Sierra Leone allow no right of appeal against conviction and sentence to a higher jurisdiction, in violation of international fair trial standards.