By Hassan Osman Kargbo
With some communities members taken open themselves to take the law in their own hands, and in a bid to curtail the high level of mob justice in the country, the Sierra Leone Police – SLP had in a public notice dated Wednesday 16 August 2023, warned perpetrators of mob justice and the public to desist from what the public notice referred to as ‘jungle justice’.
According to the notice, the violence acts in the guise of exercising justice has the propensity to what can be best described as extra-judicial killings suspected thieves or miscreants in some local communities in the country.
The SLP noted through the public notice, that the action is against the law of the land and the SLP considered the act as deadly and serious miscarriage of justice.
The notice furthered stated that there is no room for mob or jungle justice in any decent society, adding that such act has serious implication to the peace, safety, and security of the state.
‘It is against this backdrop that the SLP seeks to remind everyone that mob or jungle justice has no place in any decent society, considering that it has serious and far-reaching implications for the peace, safety, and security of the state,’ the notice stated.
The release furthered to caution and vehemently condemned any form of jungle justice in Sierra Leone, stating, it is out-rightly intolerable in the country, considering what the law stated that no one has the right to take the law in their own hands.
‘Given the fact that the position of the law is clear: no person has the right to unreasonably and unjustifiably take the life of another person-either suspected to have committed a crime or being about to do so,’ it noted.
The notice reminded the public that section 23(4) of the constitution of Sierra Leone stated that every individual is presume innocent until it is proven by competent court of law.
The SLP informed the public in the notice that they are the only statutory body authorized to investigate suspected criminals in the country.
They also admonished individuals who had been engaged in acts viewed as mob justice in various communities across the country should stop and refrain from doing such act, noting that the act is not only hostile but also barbaric in this day and age. The public notice admonished individuals to desist from such offensives acts or they could ready to face the full force of the law.
The notices ended by encouraging everyone to reports any matter of suspected or arrested criminals to the nearest police station and assured the public that investigation will be carried out and subsequent prosecutions as the law prescribed.
