Outrage As 70-Year-Old Rapist Is Jailed For 2 Days In Sierra Leone

A 70-year-old rapist has been jailed for two days by Justice John Bosco
Allieu, an action that has caused outpouring of outrage across Sierra
Leone.

The elder was found guilty of raping a 13-year-old girl, whose parents he served as a night watchman.

Sierra
Leoneans took to social media and radio following the sentence, with
some calling for the sacking of the judge responsible.

Gender
equality and rights campaigners said the move by a Freetown High Court
was a slap on the face of the efforts to curtail sexual and gender-based
violence in the country.

The convict was scheduled for release on Wednesday.

Reports
indicated that Justice John Bosco Allieu had doubted the man’s mental
state, even though he failed to order a psychiatric evaluation on him.

The ruling came just days after the launch of a national campaign against rape, spearheaded by First Lady Fatima Bio.

The
high profile campaign dubbed Hands Off Our Girls, was launched in
Freetown over the weekend by President Julius Maada Bio and graced by
five West African first ladies.

The president and his celebrity
wife have boosted the fight against sexual violence, which was rife in
Sierra Leone, with words and actions in the last seven month of his
coming to power.

Notably, President Bio recently heightened the
debate around rape with his call for a harsher punishment for anyone
found guilty of committing it.

Last month, an organisation which
provides shelter and support for gender-based violence victims reported
that it had a seven months old baby as the youngest victim at the time.

And
that came amidst a public debate sparked by images of a five-year-old
girl left paralysed after being raped by an elderly relative.

The
head of the influential women’s rights campaign group, 50:50, Dr Fatu
Taqi said the controversial ruling appeared to make mockery of the
president’s and the first lady’s efforts and declaration.

“For
me, it is a case for the president to act on the matter. Let him show
that what he says he marches it with action,” she told a popular radio
breakfast show on Wednesday.

The UN Women representative in
Sierra Leone, Ms Mary Okumu, also expressed concern and said the ruling
called for a review for the interest of justice for women and girls.

The
judiciary has always been blamed for the rise in sexual abuse cases,
due to what critics say were delays and low conviction rates.