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The Legal Aid Board has concluded the third and final phase of the UNDP-funded training of Police Investigators and Prosecutors on the 2018 Bail Regulation at the Kenema District Council Hall on 19th May 2023.
The training was aimed at ensuring uniformity and consistency in the application of bail both by the police and the courts as stipulated in the Regulation. The trainings are meant to address abuses and challenges in respect of bail which people face from the time they are arrested by the police until the conclusion of their matters in the courts. The training was also aimed at enhancing the capacity of police officers to address injustices and conflicts in communities and also adherence to guidelines to bail application.
The training was conducted in five locations from three districts: Kenema, Western Rural, and Urban Districts with Kenema being the last. The project initially targeted a total of 290 Police Investigators and Prosecutors from these districts but that number was later increased to 315 as follows: 90 from Waterloo and York Districts, 180 from Freetown, and 45 from Kenema. The increase follows a request from the leadership of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP). The training commenced at Waterloo on Monday 8th May 2023, followed by two others at Kissy on May 10 and 12, one at the Solidarity Hall of the Sierra Leone Labour Congress (SLLC) on May 15, one at Grassfield Community Center at Lumley on May 17, and one in Kenema on May 19 respectively.
The event marks the final phase of the project which benefited a total of 965 Police Investigators and Prosecutors in the country’s sixteen districts. 400 officers were trained in 2021, 250 in 2022, and 315 in 2023 The first phase of the project targeted eight districts: Moyamba, Bo, Kambia, Port Loko, Kono, Tonkalili, Pujehun, and Kailahun while the second phase targeted five districts: Karene, Koinadugu, Falaba, Bombali, and Bonthe.
The Waterloo training was facilitated by the Legal Aid Counsel Abdulai Sesay, training In Freetown was facilitated by Counsels Randy Bangura, Cyril Taylor Young, and Ibrahim Bangura, and the one for Kenema by Counsel Patrick Kamara In the PowerPoint presentations on Bail Regulation in the five locations, the facilitators explained the meaning of bail, underlining that it is free and, more importantly, a right. They emphasized that bail is not meant to punish suspects or accused, but to ensure smooth and speedy investigations and trials.
They also explained the various types of offenses – Indictable or Felony, Summa or Misdemeanor, and Arrestable or Non-Arrestable, adding that Investigators need to know the elements in the different types of offenses to be able to proffer the correct charges and also to determine the bail conditions.
