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asamforay
Posts:29
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| 07/31/2007 12:53 PM |
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CDF VERDICT DUE ON THURSDAY
July 31, 2007
Comments by
Alfred M. SamForay, CDF Defence Fund.
The verdict in the matter of Prosecutor versus the two remaining CDF Accused, former Director of War, Moinina Fofana, and former Chief Initiator, Dr. Alieu Kondewa, is due on Thursday 2 August 2007. By the time the verdict is given, it would have taken the three judge Chamber over eight months to ascertain the guilt or innocence of the CDF accused. No verdict is expected in the case of First Accused, Chief Sam Hinga Norman, who died in a prison cell in Dakar, Senegal on 22 February 2007 following hip replacement surgery. The case against Chief Norman was closed following his death. Efforts by members of his family to obtain a verdict post-mortem was unsuccessful, the court arguing that a verdict will not serve the interest of justice.
It also would have been four long years since these men were arrested and detained, and the toll on them and members of their families who are sustained only by the goodwill of friends and supporters has been devastating, to say the least. SO WE ASK WHAT HAS TAKEN THE CHAMBER THIS LONG TO DECIDE ON THE CASE OF THE CDF ACCUSED? We are, of course, not unaware of the fact that the court has allowed four of its leading defendants, Foday Sankoh, Sam Bockarie, Chief Hinga Norman and possibly Johnny Paul Koroma, to die in custody without determining their guilt or innocence.
In the case of Chief Norman, not just that we will never be able to know the outcome of the charges leveled against him, we may also never know the true cause of his death. The court in a cover your behind internal investigation recently concluded that Chief Norman died of what it called “natural causes”. This despite the fact that overwhelming evidence was submitted to the court stating unequivocally that Mr. Norman died as a result of medical negligence in a prison cell at a significantly sub-standard medical facility in Dakar.
For the remaining two accused leaders of the CDF, we can only hope that sense and sensibility will prevail and these men will be freed to proceed with the remainder of their lives so unfairly interrupted by these bogus charges brought against them. It will then be left to the people of Sierra Leone when they go to the polls on August 11 whether they will re-elect and reward the useless government that allowed this tragedy to visit our people in the form of an avoidable coup followed by an exercise in judicial duplicity by indicting Chief Norman, Mr. Fofanah and Dr. Kondewa without indicting the political leaders who actually directed the war – President Kabbah inclusive.
Both Mr. Fofana and Dr. Kondewa are charged with eight counts each of Crimes against Humanity, violations of Article III Common to the Geneva Conventions (War Crimes) as well as other serious violations of international humanitarian laws. Each man can be found separately guilty or not guilty on all or any of the eight charges without prejudice to the other. We look forward to the release from custody of these men on Thursday so that the healing process begun following the eleven-year civil war will resume in earnest. Any thing other than total vindication for these men will be unacceptable in the interest of justice and national unity. Simply stated, Mr. Fofana and Dr. Kondewa are not the men who bear the greatest responsibility for the alleged violations of the protocols of war as defined by the court. The people of Sierra Leone and the international community which has wasted over $200 million on this court is no doubt watching very carefully the outcome of the CDF trial.
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shekukal
Posts:11
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| 08/01/2007 6:33 AM |
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Reverend,
What evidence was presented to the court in Chief Norman's death that contradicts the courts investigation and conclusion that his death was that of natural causes.
Sheku
----- Original Message ---- From: "asamforay@aol.com" <asamforay@aol.com> To: defence-norman@un.org; hbsaffa1@hotmail.com; CSL-pressoffice@un.org; KABBIEKANU@yahoo.com; gibrilkoroma@aol.com; leonenet@lists.umbc.edu; lansjay0078@yahoo.com; tegloma@egroups.com Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 2:40:25 PM Subject: [Leonenet] CDF VERDICT DUE ON THURSDAY
CDF VERDICT DUE ON THURSDAY
July 31, 2007
Comments by
Alfred M. SamForay, CDF Defence Fund.
The verdict in the matter of Prosecutor versus the two remaining CDF Accused, former Director of War, Moinina Fofana, and former Chief Initiator, Dr. Alieu Kondewa, is due on Thursday 2 August 2007. By the time the verdict is given, it would have taken the three judge Chamber over eight months to ascertain the guilt or innocence of the CDF accused. No verdict is expected in the case of First Accused, Chief Sam Hinga Norman, who died in a prison cell in Dakar, Senegal on 22 February 2007 following hip replacement surgery. The case against Chief Norman was closed following his death. Efforts by members of his family to obtain a verdict post-mortem was unsuccessful, the court arguing that a verdict will not serve the interest of justice.
It also would have been four long years since these men were arrested and detained, and the toll on them and members of their families who are sustained only by the goodwill of friends and supporters has been devastating, to say the least. SO WE ASK WHAT HAS TAKEN THE CHAMBER THIS LONG TO DECIDE ON THE CASE OF THE CDF ACCUSED? We are, of course, not unaware of the fact that the court has allowed four of its leading defendants, Foday Sankoh, Sam Bockarie, Chief Hinga Norman and possibly Johnny Paul Koroma, to die in custody without determining their guilt or innocence.
In the case of Chief Norman, not just that we will never be able to know the outcome of the charges leveled against him, we may also never know the true cause of his death. The court in a cover your behind internal investigation recently concluded that Chief Norman died of what it called “natural causes”. This despite the fact that overwhelming evidence was submitted to the court stating unequivocally that Mr. Norman died as a result of medical negligence in a prison cell at a significantly sub-standard medical facility in Dakar.
For the remaining two accused leaders of the CDF, we can only hope that sense and sensibility will prevail and these men will be freed to proceed with the remainder of their lives so unfairly interrupted by these bogus charges brought against them. It will then be left to the people of Sierra Leone when they go to the polls on August 11 whether they will re-elect and reward the useless government that allowed this tragedy to visit our people in the form of an avoidable coup followed by an exercise in judicial duplicity by indicting Chief Norman, Mr. Fofanah and Dr. Kondewa without indicting the political leaders who actually directed the war – President Kabbah inclusive.
Both Mr. Fofana and Dr. Kondewa are charged with eight counts each of Crimes against Humanity, violations of Article III Common to the Geneva Conventions (War Crimes) as well as other serious violations of international humanitarian laws. Each man can be found separately guilty or not guilty on all or any of the eight charges without prejudice to the other. We look forward to the release from custody of these men on Thursday so that the healing process begun following the eleven-year civil war will resume in earnest. Any thing other than total vindication for these men will be unacceptable in the interest of justice and national unity. Simply stated, Mr. Fofana and Dr. Kondewa are not the men who bear the greatest responsibility for the alleged violations of the protocols
of war as defined by the court. The people of Sierra Leone and the international community which has wasted over $200 million on this court is no doubt watching very carefully the outcome of the CDF trial.
Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story.
Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
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asamforay
Posts:29
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| 08/01/2007 9:06 AM |
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Sheku,
There was a posting here late last week which addressed the family's response to Justice Winter's report. It referenced two submissions, one a 5-page report from Dr. Albert Demby which among other things contradicted the very facility the court claimed Chief was admited and died which we now know was diferent from the advanced military hospital they claimed. Demby's conclusion based on his personal and professional observations during the autopsy was that Chief Norman died from "medical negligence".
The second second submission was from Chief Norman's son who was with the Chief from the day of the operation to the time he died. His non-medical conclusion which was also in line with Demby's was that Chief Norman died from a continous loss of blod - two weeks of bleeding from February 8 to 22 when he died.
The court is well aware of these variances and misinformation but they chose to ignore those reports. Justice Winter was given blood soaked beddings to underline the two submissions. My press release last week, which you should actually read, gives a line by line response to all the conclusions Justice Winter made.
My point is that if the court deliberately lied about the facility where Cheif Norman was admited and died, what else did they lie about? The blood they gave him after he collapsed two days before he died was never typed to his blood. So he developed a high fever which Dr. Demby assumed was probably from blood rejection or contamination, and they refused to send him to emergency even when they saw that he was gradually fading away. Instead they gave him additionally blankets which he kept soiling with blood.
The bottom line is that this is clearly a KILLER COURT that took a relatively healthy man from Sierra Leone and returned a corpse in its stead. We as a people should have voiced our objections instead of putting up academic dabates like some of the idlers on this net did constantly arguing with us about the type of treatment the Chief was receing even though they had no clue about the matter. It became - and still remains - a political argument for most people who do not want to accept the responsiblity of Mr. Kabbah and his government for delivering Chief Norman's head on a silver platter to his tormentors.
But we as Sierra Leoneans are really not good at protecting our own. The part of Sierra Leone I come from, the only thing that gets the Mende man mad is if you take his wife or bush away from him. And then he will go to court for the next twenty years to fight you. Otherwise, one cup of rice and a cola nut and he is appeased. Those of us who are supposedly eductaed and live abroad don't fare too well either. So we ramain at the bottom of the food chain and God has no prefernce for our self-inflicted misery neither is He amused at our foolishness and malaise.
Regards,
A. SamForay.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sheku Kallon <shekukal@yahoo.com>
To: leonenet@lists.umbc.edu; defence-norman@un.org; hbsaffa1@hotmail.com; CSL-pressoffice@un.org; KABBIEKANU@yahoo.com; gibrilkoroma@aol.com; lansjay0078@yahoo.com; tegloma@egroups.com
Sent: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 8:03 am
Subject: Re: [Leonenet] CDF VERDICT DUE ON THURSDAY
Reverend,
What evidence was presented to the court in Chief Norman's death that contradicts the courts investigation and conclusion that his death was that of natural causes.
Sheku
----- Original Message ----
From: " asamforay@aol.com" < asamforay@aol.com>
To: defence-norman@un.org; hbsaffa1@hotmail.com; CSL-pressoffice@un.org; KABBIEKANU@yahoo.com; gibrilkoroma@aol.com; leonenet@lists.umbc.edu; lansjay0078@yahoo.com; tegloma@egroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 2:40:25 PM
Subject: [Leonenet] CDF VERDICT DUE ON THURSDAY
CDF VERDICT DUE ON THURSDAY
July 31, 2007
Comments by
Alfred M. SamForay, CDF Defence Fund.
The verdict in the matter of Prosecutor versus the two remaining CDF Accused, former Director of War, Moinina Fofana, and former Chief Initiator, Dr. Alieu Kondewa, is due on Thursday 2 August 2007. By the time the verdict is given, it would have taken the three judge Chamber over eight months to ascertain the guilt or innocence of the CDF accused. No verdict is expected in the case of First Accused, Chief Sam Hinga Norman, who died in a prison cell in Dakar, Senegal on 22 February 2007 following hip replacement surgery. The case against Chief Norman was closed following his death. Efforts by members of his family to obtain a verdict post-mortem was unsuccessful, the court arguing that a verdict will not serve the interest of justice.
It also would have been four long years since these men were arrested and detained, and the toll on them and members of their families who are sustained only by the goodwill of friends and supporters has been devastating, to say the least. SO WE ASK WHAT HAS TAKEN THE CHAMBER THIS LONG TO DECIDE ON THE CASE OF THE CDF ACCUSED? We are, of course, not unaware of the fact that the court has allowed four of its leading defendants, Foday Sankoh, Sam Bockarie, Chief Hinga Norman and possibly Johnny Paul Koroma, to die in custody without determining their guilt or innocence.
In the case of Chief Norman, not just that we will never be able to know the outcome of the charges leveled against him, we may also never know the true cause of his death. The court in a cover your behind internal investigation recently concluded that Chief Norman died of what it called “natural causes”. This despite the fact that overwhelming evidence was submitted to the court stating unequivocally that Mr. Norman died as a result of medical negligence in a prison cell at a significantly sub-standard medical facility in Dakar.
For the remaining two accused leaders of the CDF, we can only hope that sense and sensibility will prevail and these men will be freed to proceed with the remainder of their lives so unfairly interrupted by these bogus charges brought against them. It will then be left to the people of Sierra Leone when they go to the polls on August 11 whether they will re-elect and reward the useless government that allowed this tragedy to visit our people in the form of an avoidable coup followed by an exercise in judicial duplicity by indicting Chief Norman, Mr. Fofanah and Dr. Kondewa without indicting the political leaders who actually directed the war – President Kabbah inclusive.
Both Mr. Fofana and Dr. Kondewa are charged with eight counts each of Crimes against Humanity, violations of Article III Common to the Geneva Conventions (War Crimes) as well as other serious violations of international humanitarian laws. Each man can be found separately guilty or not guilty on all or any of the eight charges without prejudice to the other. We look forward to the release from custody of these men on Thursday so that the healing process begun following the eleven-year civil war will resume in earnest. Any thing other than total vindication for these men will be unacceptable in the interest of justice and national unity. Simply stated, Mr. Fofana and Dr. Kondewa are not the men who bear the greatest responsibility for the alleged violations of the protocols of war as defined by the court. The people of Sierra Leone and the international community which has wasted over $200 million on this court is no doubt watching very carefully the outcome of the CDF trial.
Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story.
Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games.
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