Wednesday December 3, 2008.

3:00pm: Court resumed and prosecution counsel Mr. Santora concluded the examination of former RUF signal commander Dauda Fornie, aka DAF and defense counsel Mr. Terry Munyard commenced the cross-examination of the witness.

Examination of Witness

Prosecution counsel asked the witness about Bockarie’s resignation from the RUF and his departure for Liberia in 1999. The witness explained that Bockarie left the RUF because of some misunderstanding with RUF leader Foday Sankoh. The witness was in Buedu when Bockarie left. According to the witness, Bockarie left him in a dungeon that was 24 feet deep when he left for Liberia. When asked to explain the reason why Bockarie had imprisoned him, the witness explained that he had gone to tell Bockarie that the Lome Peace Accord had several benefits for the RUF. He said that Bockarie did nor appreciate this view that he had expressed. He said Bockarie accused him of coniving to betray the RUF. The witness said he left and wrote a letter to Sankoh. The letter, he said, was handed to Kaliko, Sankoh’s bodyguard for delivery to Sankoh. When Kaliko went to Kailahun, he exposed the letter to other RUF fighters and Bockarie’s bodyguards saw it. The witness said that kaliko was arrested and taken to Bockarie with the letter. He said Bockarie also arrested Jr. Vandy, with whom he had written the letter. The witness escaped to Vahun and sent a message to Sankoh, informing him of what Bockarie was doing.  The witness said he was later arrested in Vahun and taken back to Buedu. When he got to Buedu, he said that Bockarie had him locked up in a dungeon that was 24 feet deep.  He said he remained in the dungeon until Bockarie left Buedu and the RUF for Liberia. He said that Issa Sesay took Bockarie’s position as military head of the RUF while Superman became the Battle Group Commander.  After Bockarie’s departure from Buedu, the witness left for Kailahun. The witness said he was in Pendembu when the war came to an end.

Prosecution counsel showed the witness several photographs in which he identified several people including Sankoh, the witness himself, Leather Boot, Alimamy Paolo Bangura, Mike Lamin, Pa Kallon and Josephine Tengbeh who was Sankoh’s girlfriend. The winess said the photographs were taken in Lome, Togo.

Cross-Examination

Defense counsel Terry Munyard commenced the cross-examination of the witness during the afternoon session.  Counsel asked the witness where he got the pgotographs from. The witness explained that when they were in Lome for peace talks with the government of Sierra Leone, there were several business photographers who took photos of various individuals. The witness said he paid for some of the photographs and kept personal copies for himself. He said he has kept the photographs ever since and he only handed them to prosecution investigators in 2006-2007.  When asked to look at the back of one of the photographs, the witness said that prosecution investigators had written on it indetifying the various individuals based on his instructions. Counsel asked the witness to say what Leather Boot’s real name was but the witness said he could not remember the full name. He said he, however, knew that the last name was Kamara. Asked whether he had said that Leather Boot’s real name was Ibrahim Ba, the witness said no.

Court adjourned for the day.