Accused permitted access to their checkbooks

Over prosecution objection, Sierra Leonean Judge Advocate Otto During has ordered that the 14 accused in a pending court-martial be permitted access to their personal checkbooks so they can provide support to their families. One of the accused also needed to pay burial expenses for his wife. "The order was given by the Judge based on humanitarian grounds. He also ordered the prisons department to be monitoring their cheques and accounts to make sure that amounts withdrawn are within prison rules."

Comparative practice note: in U.S. military law, such an order would likely have been deemed beyond the power of the military judge.