Special Court for Sierra Leone
The Office of the Prosecutor

PRESS RELEASE
Freetown, Sierra Leone, 29 November 2002

Special Court's Office of the Prosecutor Enters New Phase

The Office of the Prosecutor has completed its initial deployment phase and is moving on to the investigatory phase of its overall strategic plan. According to the Prosecutor, David Crane, during the shifting of phases his office has made personnel changes and reorganized. Certain positions were also eliminated and other positions were created to reflect the current and future needs of the office.

The position of legal administrator was shifted to a position under the newly created Office of the Director of Operations, which supports the Prosecutor's staff and works directly with the Registry. One of the senior trial counsel positions was eliminated, as was the position of the deputy legal administrator. During this time the Chief of Prosecutions resigned for personal reasons and has since returned to his home country. An acting Chief of Prosecutions has been named. The investigatory phase continues forward as planned.

"Organizations need to adapt to changing requirements and needs of both the individual and the organization itself. The Office of the Prosecutor is a flexible and agile office capable of change. The office is better for this ability," Crane said. "Because of the intense pace of the workload, it was expected that there would be organizational and personnel changes. However, we have not stopped in executing our important mandate of trying those who bear the greatest responsibility."

#END

INFORMATION FOR MEDIA - NOT FOR ADVERTISING