The Judiciary of Sierra Leone on Tuesday 23rd August 2022, handed over and authorized the destruction of marijuana that was in holding as court exhibits.

The evidentiary material consisted of three large sacks of cannabis and each of the sacks had in it two bundles of cannabis, according to the report which sums up to a total of six bundles of cannabis that were set on fire.

The report said police at a checkpoint in Kono district east of Sierra Leone, arrested two men with the cannabis and were transferred to Kenema, the provincial headquarter town of the eastern region where an investigation was conducted by the Transnational Organized Crime Unit and the matter charged to court.

The bundles of cannabis were tendered in court as exhibits as Ishaika Bangura and Aiah Kamanda were charged with unlawful possession.

Bangura and Kamanda were subsequently found guilty, and ordered to pay a monetary fine or serve six months in prison, the report noted.

However, the burning of cannabis wouldn’t have occurred without the judiciary’s implied agreement.

“Yes, we need to authorize that because we’re the custodian as it was in our possession as exhibits. Police have done their investigations, and then tender the contents to us as exhibits”.

The judiciary reportedly handed over the cannabis to a Kenema city law enforcement unit within Sierra Leone Police called Justice Support Department.

“The burning exercise took place in an open space at the Magistrate Court, in the presence of the press, SLP-Military Liaison Officer, Civil Society, and other members of the public”, the police report explained the scenery of the destruction.

Head of Justice and Legal Support Unit Assistant Superintendent of Police Daniel Lahai Konneh, said the exercise was a normal occurrence.

“It was always a tradition that the court hands over exhibits of such nature to the police for burning, immediately after they passed the verdict”, the police report says.