International Tribunals (Sierra Leone) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for introducing and explaining the Bill and to the noble Lords who have, in this short debate, discussed the Bill and its background in considerable detail. I make it clear from the outset that we on these Benches support the Bill, which we understand to be now necessary for the reasons that the Minister explained. To be crystal clear, we understand that the Bill enables the United Kingdom to sign the sentence enforcement agreement with the Special Court for Sierra Leone so that if former Liberian President Charles Taylor is convicted by that court—I understand that his trial is due to begin on 4 June—he can serve his sentence here inthe UK. I gather, although I would like confirmation of this, that although the Bill sounds as though it is legislating for one individual, it is not hybrid, as one might think, as it deals with a situation rather than a person. I hope that that explanation is correct. To be clearer still on the need for the Bill, I also understand that the issue arises only because we are dealing with a crime or crimes perpetrated before the settingup of the International Criminal Court in 2002 and therefore not embraced by the ICC. I was a little puzzled when the Minister said that this was not foreseen when the ICC was set up. Surely what he meant was that, because the ICC was not retrospective, as the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, rightly said, it could not embrace crime committed at that time. Among other things, it would be interesting to know from the Minister whether it is envisaged that more horrors from before 2002—we can all remember many hideous atrocities and apparent international crimes from that period—will lead to trials in similar courts and whether the UK may be similarly involved. In other words, could we face similar legislation in future about the pre-2002 past, or is this really the end of the line, as the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, suggested or hoped? Is the Bill setting any kind of precedent? I turn briefly to a few questions beyond those that noble Lords have already put to the Minister. First, as the Minister reminded us, Charles Taylor is not the only one facing charges of this kind in the Sierra Leone court. I believe that there are nine others—well, there are actually 10 but one has gone missing. Can we be sure that the UK will not end up imprisoning any of them, or is that just, in the Minister’s word, an ““expectation””? Confirmation of that would be helpful. Secondly, can the Minister explain the exactreason for using the model of a special court based in—although for security reasons, as we have just heard, not actually meeting in—the country in which the atrocities took place, when, prior to the ICC, courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda worked somewhat differently? Is the argument for this particular formula this time around that it delivers justice quicker or costs less, or what? Does it have a downside, of the kind just described by the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, for Sierra Leone itself? On the matter of cost, which we should never put entirely out of our minds, I suppose that it is right that the UK carries the annual cost of £44,000, and will continue to do so, presumably for many years ahead, if all this comes about. Was there any suggestion that the cost should be shared amongICC member states, or have we, for reasons that the Minister may be able to elaborate on, decided that it is best to take it all on our own purse? I have a couple more questions of this kind. If a decision were taken for early release—I have absolutely no grounds for believing that such a thing could arise—who exactly would take that decision? I presume that it would be the court, but the court might not exist some years ahead, so would some residual capacity handle that matter? We must also ask what happens when the sentence comes to an end. Could the person concerned—in this case it would be Charles Taylor, if convicted—claim political asylum if and when he was released from prison at the end of his sentence? Is that likely? Has that been thought about? Finally, we come to the minutiae. I would like to know two much smaller facts. First, has the Minister any idea how long the trial will take? Are we talking about months or years? Secondly, he noted that the Bill was for England and Wales only and that it excludes Scotland. Will he tell us exactly why? Is there any subconscious meaning to leaving Scotland out of the Bill that we should all know about? Generally, this is a necessary, if not very warming, piece of legislation about an ugly, unpleasant and dark situation—indeed, a nightmare—from the recent past. If we want hope, we can draw it from what is now happening in Sierra Leone, where it seems that a better pattern for the future is emerging. However, we can never forget those hideous scenes and reports from the 1990s of atrocities and cruelties to men, women and children, which we thought probably belonged to the darkest of dark ages but which still continue. We shall now have to wait and see whether and when the Bill comes to be used. At least we are prepared.