Special Court President Justice Jon Kamanda

Justice Kamanda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and International Relations from Durham University (FBC), and a Diploma in Education from the University of Sierra Leone.

He trained as a Barrister at the Inns of Court School of Law in London, and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1975. From 1976-80 he worked as State Prosecutor in the Government Law Office, rising to the rank of Senior State Counsel. In 1980 he entered private practice in criminal law.

Justice Kamanda has served as an Appeals Court Justice in the Sierra Leone judiciary since 2004, and is the Presiding Judge in criminal appeals. He has also served as a High Court Judge in the Civil Division.

In 1982 he was elected to Parliament, and he has served as Deputy Minister of Mineral Resources and Minister of Health.

He was sworn in as a Special Court Appeals Judge in November 2007.
 
Registrar Binta Mansaray

Binta Mansaray was appointed Registrar of the Special Court in February 2010. She was previously appointed Deputy Registrar in July 2007,  and Acting Registrar June 2009.

Binta Mansaray joined the Special Court for Sierra Leone in 2003 as Outreach Coordinator, where she designed the Court’s acclaimed grassroots programme to keep the people of Sierra Leone, and later Liberia, informed about the Court and the trials.


Prior to joining the Court, she was a human rights advocate for victims and ex-combatants with a number of organizations. She held the post of Country Representative for the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in Sierra Leone, worked with the Campaign for Good Governance, and served as consultant with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and a number of civil society organizations.

During her time as Acting Registrar, Ms. Mansaray has overseen the end of trials in Freetown and the transfer of convicted persons to serve their sentences, as well as the downsizing of the Court and consideration of residual issues. She has also continued to focus on the legacy of the Special Court and the continuing trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor in The Hague.

Ms. Mansaray is a graduate of the University of Sierra Leone, and she received her Master's degree from Fordham University in New York, U.S.A.


 
Deputy Prosecutor Joseph Kamara

Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara was appointed as the Deputy Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone by the Government of Sierra Leone in August of 2008. He served as Acting Prosecutor between September 2009 and February 2010.

Mr. Kamara joined the Office of the Prosecutor in January 2004, and a year later he was called upon to lead the CDF Prosecution Team as Senior Trial Attorney.  The Immediate Office of the Deputy Prosecutor is responsible for and has over sight of Legal Operations, Investigations and the Section for Evidence, Archive and Post-Operational Access (SEAPA).  The Deputy Prosecutor is also responsible for Legacy and Residual Issues and assists the Prosecutor in the day to day administration of the OTP.

Mr. Kamara served for eight years as prosecutor in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution, where he rose to the rank of Senior State Counsel. In 1996, and again from 2000-2004 he worked in private practice, including several law firms in Washington, D.C.  Mr. Kamara is currently President of the Sierra Leone Law School Alumni Association and a member of the General Legal Council, responsible for the admission to practice and ethics of the Sierra Leone Bar.  Mr. Kamara is also an adjunct lecturer in International Criminal Law Procedure and Practice at the Sierra Leone Law School.

Joseph Kamara was born in Makeni, Bombali District, Northern Province of the Republic of Sierra Leone. He attended the St. Augustine Catholic Primary School and did his secondary education at the Albert Academy in Freetown, Sierra Leone.  Kamara is a graduate of the Faculty of Law, Fourah Bay College, at the University of Sierra Leone. He was called to the Bar in 1991.  He subsequently received a Masters in Law from Southern Methodist University in 2000.

Mr. Kamara is married to Lynette and blessed with two daughters and a son.
 
Prosecutor Brenda Hollis
Brenda Hollis was appointed Prosecutor in February 2010. From 2007 to 2010, Ms. Hollis has been a Principal Trial Attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), where she is responsible for leading the legal team prosecuting former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

From 2001 to 2007, Brenda Hollis was an Expert Legal Consultant on international law and criminal procedure. During this period she trained judges, prosecutors and investigators at courts and international tribunals in Indonesia, Iraq and Cambodia. She also assisted victims of international crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Colombia to prepare submissions requesting investigations by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In 2002 and 2003, and again in 2006, Ms. Hollis served as a consultant to the OTP, where she assisted in evidence-gathering missions and provided legal and tactical advice.

Ms. Hollis was Senior Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 1994 to 2001, where she served as lead counsel in a number of historic prosecutions. She led case in which rape was charged as torture, and was lead counsel in the preparation of the case against former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic until her departure from the ICTY in 2001.
 
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