The AFRC Trial of Brima, Kamara and Kanu

The AFRC and the civil war

The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council emerged from the military coup of May 25, 1997. It overthrew President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s government, invited the Revolutionary United Front into an alliance and became one of the principal armed factions in the continuing Sierra Leone conflict.

The Special Court’s jurisdiction covered serious crimes committed after November 30, 1996. Its mandate focused on people bearing the greatest responsibility, not every perpetrator or every offense committed during the eleven-year war.

The defendants

Alex Tamba Brima, known as “Gullit,” and Ibrahim Bazzy Kamara were soldiers who served on the AFRC Supreme Council. Santigie Borbor Kanu, known as “Five-Five,” was also a council member. Brima and Kamara were arrested on Special Court warrants in March 2003; Kanu was transferred from Pademba Road Prison.

AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma was separately indicted. He left Sierra Leone before being taken into custody, so the court never tried his guilt in the three-defendant proceeding.

The trial

The joint trial opened in Freetown on March 7, 2005. Prosecutors called 59 witnesses before resting in November. The defense later called 87 witnesses, including Brima. The record dealt with a campaign of offenses against civilians rather than one isolated event.

In June 2007, Trial Chamber II convicted all three men on eleven counts. The convictions included acts of terrorism and collective punishment; extermination; murder as both a crime against humanity and a war crime; rape; outrages upon personal dignity; physical violence; conscripting, enlisting or using children under fifteen in hostilities; enslavement; and pillage.

Acquittals and the forced-marriage issue

The chamber acquitted the defendants on counts charged as sexual slavery, forced marriage and other inhumane acts. Those acquittals are part of the outcome and are not erased by the convictions.

On appeal, the judges held that the trial chamber had interpreted “other inhumane acts” too narrowly when it treated forced marriage as subsumed by sexual slavery. The Appeals Chamber nevertheless declined to enter new convictions because the relevant evidence had been applied to another count. This was an important legal clarification, not an additional guilty verdict.

Sentences

Brima and Kanu each received a 50-year term of imprisonment. Kamara received 45 years. The court imposed single terms reflecting the combined criminal conduct for which each defendant was convicted.

The Residual Special Court records that Brima later died in Kigali on June 9, 2016. His death after final judgment does not vacate the completed conviction. Kamara and Kanu’s later contempt convictions involved witness interference and were separate proceedings, not part of the original AFRC war-crimes verdict.

The final appeal

All three defendants challenged their convictions and sentences. Brima advanced twelve grounds, Kamara thirteen and Kanu nineteen. On February 22, 2008, the Appeals Chamber dismissed all three defense appeals and upheld the convictions and sentences.

The final outcome is therefore not based on an unreviewed trial judgment. The appellate ruling also preserves the defendant-specific acquittals and its decision not to add a forced-marriage conviction.

Why the judgment matters

Human Rights Watch noted that the AFRC case produced the first convictions by a United Nations-backed tribunal for recruiting and using child soldiers. The case also documented crimes by a military faction that had seized state power, while maintaining individual rather than collective guilt.

The judgment does not exhaust responsibility for the war. The court’s mandate and limited set of indictments left many victims without an individual case against every direct perpetrator.

Current status

The convictions of Brima, Kamara and Kanu are final. Brima died in 2016 after judgment. The Residual Special Court continues to preserve the court records and supervise residual functions connected with the Special Court’s work.

This file does not label Koroma convicted, does not turn faction membership into guilt, and does not describe acquitted counts as proven offenses against these defendants.

Questions beyond the judgment

• How many direct perpetrators of the underlying crimes were never prosecuted?
• What became of every person allegedly within the AFRC command structure?
• How has the child-soldier precedent influenced later international criminal law?
• What support remains available to survivors whose specific harms were not charged?