Two Newly Appointed High Court Judges Call On President Kabbah
By Yusuf Alghali

6th October 2003-Two judges, Sierra Leonean-born Mrs. Claudia Latile Taylor and British-born Mr. Robert Shuster who have gone through parliamentary approval will soon start work to clear the backlog of corruption-related and other offences awaiting court trials.

Speaking during their formal presentation to His Excellency the President, Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, at the Lodge this morning, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Eke Halloway, described the two as "worthy judges" who are poised to start their work. He said while Judge Taylor had had some twenty years of experience as a magistrate, her British counterpart, Mr. Shuster had been at the bar for some fifteen years, prosecuting fraud and anti-corruption cases.

President Kabbah congratulated Judge Taylor, who he said he personally admired because of the way she had approached her job as a magistrate and now as a judge. He was hopeful that with the new team of judges "the backlog of cases will be addressed".
Welcoming Judge Shuster to Sierra Leone, President Kabbah noted that he was grateful that Mr. Shuster had come to serve our country. "There are many other places you could have gone to," the Head of State said, adding that because he [Shuster] had been following our difficulties in Sierra Leone, he had thought it fit to bring to bear his professional skills in his new assignment.

"We've had a complete breakdown of law and order here," President Kabbah observed, stressing that without the rule of law there would be "no democracy, no stability and no peace, except chaos".

He said the two judges thus had a very serious assignment at hand, noting that someday in the future Judge Shuster would reflect on his assignment in Sierra Leone and proudly say: "I've contributed to making Sierra Leone better."

For his part, Judge Shuster expressed how delighted he was to be in Sierra Leone, saying: "I am going to enjoy this job." He said he had been working in Fiji, where he disclosed that he had dealt with a USD 300 million fraud case involving the Fijian Central Bank. "Corruption is endemic everywhere and it must be stopped," the British Judge stressed, noting how happy he was to be the first foreign judge here on anti-corruption matters. "I am looking forward to helping Sierra Leone…I'm looking forward to the challenge," he said.

According to Chief Justice Abdulai Timbo, another judge is expected to arrive Freetown from the Solomon Islands shortly to complement the efforts of the two already presented.