Prosecutor v. Kallon

For years, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was involved in a brutal armed conflict in Sierra Leone. RUF forces murdered and mutilated civilians, notoriously amputating hands and feet from even young children. RUF forces also enslaved civilians and used them for sex, labor, and combat. In 1999, international actors helped mediate the Lomé Accord, in which the RUF agreed to end its attacks on civilians. In exchange, the government of Sierra Leone agreed to give all RUF members “absolute and free” amnesty for crimes committed during the armed conflict up to that point and to “ensure that no official or judicial action” was taken against any RUF member for those crimes. The RUF breached the agreement and resumed its attacks. The government of Sierra Leone then helped create the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), an independent international tribunal. The SCSL’s creation documents expressly stated that the court would not recognize any amnesty for crimes against humanity or international crimes. The SCSL’s prosecutor charged Morris Kallon, Brima Bazzy Kamara, and other RUF leaders (defendants) with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kallon and Kamara claimed that that the Lomé Accord gave them amnesty for pre-1999 crimes. Kallon also argued that it would be an abuse of process, i.e., unfair, for the SCSL to prosecute him for pre-1999 crimes because (1) the government of Sierra Leone had promised to ensure that he would not be judicially prosecuted for those crimes and (2) it had helped create the SCSL.