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Article: DEATH PENALTY: APPEAL VICTORY STRENGTHENS CASE FOR ABOLITION.
- Article from:
- Interpress Service
- Article date:
- December 12, 2008
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By Mohamed Fofanah
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone, Dec. 12, 2008 (IPS/GIN) -- In the first successful appeal of a death penalty sentence in Sierra Leone, a court overturned treason convictions for 11 men, opening the possibility of an eventual end to capital punishment there.
"It was like a miracle, I could not believe it. We were all filled with emotions when the judge said that we were acquitted and discharged," said Hindolo Trye, one of those acquitted.
The charges -- laid against 10 members of the former armed opposition groups, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and one civilian -- related to an ...