Thursday, June 25, 2015

Slowest court-martial in history?

The slowest court-martial in history* has resumed in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Here is an account of the direct and cross-examination of a police forensic documents examiner, testifying for the defense.

A government effort to impugn the witness's impartiality seems to have backfired:
He was asked as to what was the consideration for the work he did for the accused, in other words, how much was he paid, but the witness replied that he was not paid but the government was paid through the Bank of Sierra Leone. 
He noted that he acted on the instructions of his bosses and that he was not in constant touch with the accused when he was conducting the forensic analysis.
* The Editor made this up. Any reader who can point to a slower-moving military court proceeding (other than the Guantánamo military commissions, which remain in a class of their own) is welcome to nominate it by a comment on this post. Real names only, please.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are subject to moderation and must be submitted under your real name. Anonymous comments will not be posted (even though the form seems to permit them).