by Dr. Fatima Babih
Fast punishment for women. Delayed justice for girls. Two cases. One brutal system in Sierra Leone.
In Sierra Leone, the justice system has revealed exactly what it values, and it is not justice and the safety of women and girls.
The government of President Julius Maada Bio, has built an international brand around “women’s empowerment.” His wife, Fatima Jabbe Bio frequently cites the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act as a great achievement. She and her husband speak at international conferences as champions for women and girls. They collect donor funds. They parade their commitment to gender justice before the world.
But while they perform women’s empowerment cherade on global stages, Sierra Leone’s courts are conducting a masterclass in selective justice. Two cases, in the courts of the same country, under the same laws, within the same justice system, expose Maada Bio’s lies.
Case #One
Two Months from Arrest to Conviction for Political Speech
Zainab Sheriff, is a young woman who is a member of the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party. She has also been a fierce critic of First Lady Fatima Bio. She was arrested in late February 2025 and sentenced to four years in prison a few days ago. She was denied bail. The prosecution moved with stunning speed, conviction within approximately two months.
Her offense?
At an APC political rally in January, Zainab suggested that people who rig elections in Sierra Leone should face the death penalty. She was expressing her frustration as an ordinary citizen about the widely disputed 2023 elections. She holds no official government or oppostion party position. She is not a policymaker. She was not inciting imminent violence. She was speaking at a political rally organized by her party.
For this, the Sierra Leone Police issued a “WANTED” poster, charging her with “threatening language, incitement, and other related offences.”
The police arrested her while she was exercising at the gym.
The courts moved swiftly.
No bail granted.
No delays.
No mercy.
But here is where the hypocrisy becomes obscene: Three Powerful Officials Made Worse Statements But Faced No Consequences
- President Julius Maada Bio, in a video speech, warned that anyone in Bonthe (his home district) who supports the opposition APC party might as well go to sleep and never wake up, because the consequences will be death.
- Francis Ben Kaifala, Bio’s appointed Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission, publicly stated that people who steal government money should face the death penalty.
- First Lady Fatima Bio declared in a video that men convicted of rape should be castrated and fed their barbecued private parts.
These three people, who currently wield actual power in Sierra Leone, whose words can become policy, whose statements reach national and international audiences, have never been questioned by police. None have been arrested. None have been prosecuted.
The message to the people of Sierra Leone is unmistakable: In this country, you can call for death and castration if you hold power. But if you are an ordinary citizen, like the young woman, Zainab Sheriff, in the opposition party, expressing political frustration, the state will hunt you down, deny you bail, and imprison you for several years.
This is not law enforcement. This is political persecution dressed up as judicial procedure.
Case #Two
Nearly Four Years and Still Waiting for Justice
Now consider an adolescent girl in Bo City. In 2022, when she was just 16 years old, she was gang-raped by three men. Nearly four years later, nearly four years, the High Court in Bo has not delivered a verdict.
The alleged perpetrators are walking free. The survivor, now a young woman, continues to live with the mental and physical trauma of a brutal sexual assault while the system that promised her justice has delivered only paperwork, adjournment, and pain.
This is not bureaucratic inefficiency. This is not a backlogged system struggling to keep up.
This is a by design.
One Country. Two Women. One Message: Your Value Depends on Your Politics
Place these two cases side by side and the pattern is undeniable:
- A politically inconvenient woman who criticized election rigging: Arrested for speech, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced in the shortest amount of time.
- A Gang rape survivor: Four years of waiting. No verdict. No justice. No urgency.
With Zainab Sheriff’s case, the Bio government has proven it knows how to fast-track cases. It simply chooses not to do so when women and girls are the victims crying out for protection; but quick to do so when the alleged perpetrator is a woman perceived as a political threat.
And the selective prosecution becomes even more grotesque when you realize:
- Zainab Sheriff, an ordinary citizen, is in prison for suggesting a punishment for election riggers.
- President Bio, who threatened APC supporters with death, remains in office.
- Francis Ben Kaifala, who called for the death penalty for corrupt officials, remains Commissioner.
- First Lady Fatima Bio, who called for castration and forced cannibalism, remains the face of “women’s empowerment.”
This is structural violence masquerading as due process. The real test of gender equality is not the law on paper, but who it protects and who it punishes.
Julius Bio’s administration loves to point to legislation as great achievements. The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act. The Child Rights Act 2024. Progressive language on paper.
But laws on paper do not protect women. Courts do. And Sierra Leone’s courts have demonstrated that they will move mountains for political prosecutions while treating sexual violence survivors with contempt disguised as procedure.
The Criminal Procedure Act 2024 itself requires timely proceedings and sets clear timelines for bringing accused persons before the court. So, the legal framework exists. What does not exist is the political will to apply it indiscriminately.
Justice System’s Message
To politically outspoken women, especially opposition voices, the message is clear: We are watching. We can move fast. Express frustration with election rigging and you will be processed with precision. Meanwhile, we can threaten you with death on national television and face no consequences.
To rape survivors and girls brutalized by sexual violence, the message is equally clear: Your pain is not urgent. Your trauma is not a priority. You can wait. And wait. And wait.
In Sierra Leone, a woman may be convicted faster as an offender than vindicated as a victim.
This is not dysfunction. This is by design. It is not an isolated problem, it is a pattern. And these two cases are not anomalies. They expose the operating standard of Sierra Leone’s judicial system:
- Political sensitivity attracts urgency. Sexual violence attracts indifference.
- Ordinary citizens are prosecuted for political speech. Powerful officials make violent threats with impunity.
- Survivors carry the burden of delay while perpetrators walk free.
- Government markets women’s empowerment internationally while failing women domestically.
- Justice bends toward power, not principle.
And while First Lady Fatima Bio positions herself as a champion of girls’ education and women’s rights through which she collects donor funds, while she calls for castration and cannibalism in viral videos, her husband’s courts tell a different story: only certain women matter. Only certain cases deserve speed. Only certain people are punished for their words.
What Women and Girls Need
Women in Sierra Leone do not need more ceremonies. They do not need more polished speeches from government officials who fly to New York and Geneva to collect applause while threatening citizens with death at home.
They need:
- Equal application of incitement laws, if Zainab Sheriff is prosecuted, so should President Bio, Francis Ben Kaifala, and First Lady Fatima Bio.
- Rape cases involving minors treated as emergencies, not administrative inconveniences.
- Courts that deliver verdicts, not adjournments.
- A justice system that does not become fierce only when powerful people feel criticized.
- Accountability for judges and prosecutors who allow sexual violence cases to languish for years.
- Transparent case management systems so survivors and the public can track delays.
- Protection for political speech, not selective prosecution based on party affiliation.
A government that is serious about gender justice would demand answers for why a child rape survivor has waited four years. It would audit delayed sexual violence cases.
It would ensure political cases are handled with transparent fairness, not opacity and speed designed to intimidate and silence dissent.
It would prove to the citizens and the world that justice is not a weapon against some women and a ghost for others.
It would apply incitement laws equally, or not at all.
The Verdict Is Already In
Right now, the record speaks for itself: Sierra Leone’s justice system can move with breathtaking speed when a woman threatens power.
Sierra Leone’s justice system moves with glacial indifference when a girl has been violated.
Sierra Leone’s President can publicly threaten opposition supporters with death.
Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commissioner can call for executions.
Sierra Leone’s First Lady can call for castration and cannibalism.
But an ordinary citizen like Zainab Sheriff, exercising free speech and suggesting punishment for election rigging gets four years in prison.
This is not justice. This is a hierarchy of whose suffering matters, whose speech is criminalized, and whose power is protected.
And it is a war on women’s equal right to justice in Sierra Leone.
A Nation That Moves Swiftly to Punish Women Must Also Move Swiftly to Protect Girls
President Bio’s government cannot market itself as a champion of women’s rights while its courts deliver justice selectively. It cannot celebrate gender equality legislation while its judges treat rape survivors as afterthoughts and political opponents as criminals for exercising free speech.
The country’s president cannot have the freedom to threaten citizens with death while his government prosecutes ordinary citizens for suggesting consequences for electoral fraud.
Anything less than equal urgency for all, and equal application of the law to all citizens, regardless of gender and political status, it is not justice. It is hypocrisy dressed up as governance.
Women are watching. Girls are waiting.
And Sierra Leone must decide: Does justice belong only to the politically connected and powerful? Or will it finally, actually, belong to all?
The answer is written in the court records. It is displayed in the “WANTED” posters. It is spoken in the President’s threats and the First Lady’s violence incitement rhetoric. It is measured in the four years a rape survivor has waited while her attackers walk free.
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 