Former British Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg has offered to
represent RUF leader Corporal Foday Sankoh in appealing his conviction
and death sentence for treason, Minister of Justice and Attorney-General
Solomon Berewa said Monday. Hogg served in Britain's last Conservative
government until May 1997. The offer, which was made in a letter from
London-based lawyer Charles Buckley, has been accepted by the Sierra
Leone government. Buckley will also act in the case. "We want (Sankoh)
to have the best lawyers in the world," Berewa said. "We assure the
Right Honorable Hogg that the government will do everything to make them
comfortable and protected in Freetown." Earlier, the government turned
down an offer from the London-based firm Akainyah and Company, which
wanted to charge £2,750 ($4,560) a day plus expenses. Nigerian lawyers
had also reportedly offered to take the case for $2,000 a day. "The
people of Freetown would have stoned us if we had accepted," Berewa
said. The British lawyers will not charge a fee for defending Sankoh.
Berewa said the costs would be defrayed by an international human rights
organization.