Stiff sentences upheld for Sierra Leone rebels

The United Nations-backed Sierra Leone tribunal has upheld sentences of up to 52 years in prison for three former rebel leaders in its last case in Freetown.
By Thijs Bouwknegt
Although the court accepted grounds for appeal by the defendants, the five-judge panel confirmed the sentences of 52, 40 and 25 years for Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon and Augustine Gbao respectively.
The three men were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing a spree of rapes and killings, as well as recruiting child soldiers, during the country's civil war which ended in 2002 after a decade of bloodshed.
The ruling against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leaders is the last judgement the court will hand down in Freetown, as its only remaining case - the trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor - has been moved to The Hague for security reasons.
The Special Court for Sierra Leone was established by the UN in 2002 to try those who bear "the grearesponsibility" for the atrocities of the civil war. The court is now expected to close its doors eight years after the end of the civil war. The conflict left some 120,000 people dead and tens of thousands mutilated.