The Office of the Principal Defender is situated within the Registry, but enjoyed considerable independence in guaranteeing the rights of the accused.
The Special Court's Defence Office, which is headed by the Principal Defender, is an innovation in the international criminal justice system. The Office acted as a counterbalance to the Prosecution, and was mandated to ensure the rights of suspects, accused person and, by extension, convicts. While other international tribunals have administrative bodies to deal with the Defence, no other tribunal had a permanent institution within the Court entrusted with "ensuring the rights of suspects and accused", as is set out in Rule 45 of of the Special Court's Rules of Procedure and Evidence.
The Defence Office became functional in February 2003, when its first attorneys took office. Thereafter, Legal Officers/Duty Counsel and Defence Advisors were recruited. Pursuant to Rule 45 of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, attorneys in the Principal Defender's Office also appeared in Court as counsel. Duty Counsel in the Office offered initial legal advice and legal representation to all accused persons, and continued to provide legal and administrative support to all accused persons and their defence teams. The Office also extended its services to convicts serving their sentences.
The first Principal Defender of the Special Court was appointed in March 2004. During the lifetime of the Special Court, the Defence Office had four Principal Defenders. The Defence Office achieved its final mandate upon the delivery of the Taylor Appeal Judgment in September 2013.
After the assignment of counsel to the Accused, members of the Defence Office engaged in oversight of defence teams. The Office monitored trials and provided advice and substantive assistance to Defence teams in the preparation of their cases, which ranged from research on legal issues as needed, working jointly on arguments on matters of common interest to the accused persons, the provision of expert witnesses, consultants and investigators, both national and international, and liaising with various governments and other entities on matters of judicial cooperation.
The Office implemented measures to attract only experienced and qualified counsel so as to ensure the accused's fair trial representation criteria which in turn enabled all its Special Court for Sierra Leone accused persons to access their best possible defence and marshal all relevant evidence which needed to be brought to the attention of the respective Judges who were seised of their now concluded matters.
The Office maintained a list of qualified and experienced counsel willing to be assigned to indigent suspects and accused persons appearing before the Special Court. Throughout its existence, The Principal Defender's Office interacted with different units within the Registry, OTP and Chambers, on issues affecting the rights and detention conditions of the accused or convicts . The Office also interacted on matters affecting fair trial rights of the accused, including the development of the Code of Conduct for counsel, consultations on practice directions to be adopted, assisting in making proposals for rule changes at Plenary, ensuring that the lawyer-client relationship was without issues,and providing Defence teams with support facilities. The Office also represented the interests of the Defence Office in Plenary sessions organized by the Judges of the Special Court.
The Office of the Principal Defende also liaised with the diplomatic community and NGOs in order to keep them abreast of developments within the respective cases from the beginning of each of the trials until the delivery of the Appeals Judgments.The Office engaged in outreach activities in collaboration with the Court's Outreach and Public Affairs Section, and listened to the Sierra Leonean people and to the extent possible, answered their questions . The Office had an important role in educating the community about the Defence, the administration of the Court's legal aid scheme, the legal principle of presumption of innocence, the burden and standards of proof, and the rights of the Accused –particularly at the community and village levels, and with national institutions such as the police and the military.
As the Court wound down its operations and achieved its mandate in Freetown and The Hague, it was envisaged that the Defence Office would provide a role model to be adopted by the Sierra Leone criminal justice system.