Sierra Leone, parliament abolishes the death penalty

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July 24, 2021 The death penalty will be replaced by life imprisonment or a minimum penalty of 30 years.

This was decided by the Parliament of Sierra Leone which voted to abolish executions, thus joining the other 22 African countries that have eliminated the death penalty.

The law will enter into force as soon as the president, Julius Maada Bio, ratifies the text.

The bill is dated May 14, 2021 and was voted by Parliament unanimously. 

The former British colony had not carried out executions since 1998, when 24 soldiers were executed accused of participating in a coup attempt. With the vote, Sierra Leone follows the path of other African countries, such as Chad or Malawi. There are still 94 death row inmates in Sierra Leone. Their sentences will now be turned into life imprisonment or a minimum sentence of 30 years.

Satisfaction of the Community of Sant'Egidio which recalled "the participation of the government of Sierra Leone in the Congresses of the Ministers of Justice, periodically promoted by the Community in Rome", adding that now we can hope for a "strengthening of a new awareness of the right to life and its value, so that Africa becomes, after Europe, the second continent without the death penalty ”.