A judge of Sierra Leone’s Supreme Court has accused the country’s chief justice and the Judicial and Legal Service Commission (JLSC) of unlawfully suspending him and withholding his salary, in what he called a breach of the constitution and an attack on judicial independence.
In a letter dated Sept. 25 and addressed to the head of the Human Resource Management Office, Justice Allan B. Halloway said the suspension order against him was “premature, procedurally flawed and unconstitutional.” He argued that the civil service rules cited to justify the action did not apply to him because he holds a constitutional office.
“The attempt to assimilate my constitutional office into the framework of the civil service is a gross misconstruction of our constitutional architecture,” Halloway wrote.
He said the constitution requires a tribunal to be appointed before any judge can be suspended, and that this step had not been followed in his case. “The so-called order of the JLSC signed by the Hon. Chief Justice … is null and void,” he said.
The judge also accused Chief Justice Komba Kamanda of personally orchestrating his interdiction “under the guise” of a JLSC decision, adding that the move was an effort to “financially strangulate” him.
Halloway cited section 138(3) of Sierra Leone’s 1991 Constitution, which prohibits varying judges’ salaries and benefits to their disadvantage, and said any withholding of pay was a direct violation of that provision.
“This is a flagrant breach of the constitution … and undermines the very principle of judicial independence,” he said.
The letter, copied to senior government officials, rights groups and international bodies including the ECOWAS Commission and the United Nations, warned that Halloway would pursue legal remedies if his salary was not restored.
Officials from the judiciary and the Human Resource Management Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
By Joseph Turay
