By Aminata Phidelia Allie
General overseer of the Lord’s Mission Church, and president of His Helping Hand International Ministry, aka 4HIM Sierra Leone, has been sentenced to a fine of Le 250 million or he goes to jail for six years.
Pastor Hassan Mansaray, with his accountant Abdul Aziz Bangura, was indicted in May 2013 for allegedly misappropriating donor funds and properties contrary to the ACC Act.
They were convicted by Justice John Bosco Katutsi of High Court No. 2 on 14 counts of corruption.
While asking for a custodial sentence, ACC prosecutor, Michael Imran Kanu, observed that though there were no guidelines pertaining to sentencing in the law, general principles must be followed.
“One of them being to consider the magnitude, extent and nature of the offence. Added to these are the criminal intentions and the extent of damage to the victims, who in the instant case are the beneficiaries…” he said.
He said a custodial sentence would be the appropriate punishment for the accused persons. “The scourge of corruption need not be over emphasized,” he said, adding that for as long as the trial lasted the accused persons proved to be “cool, calm, composed and calculated liars that needed to be treated as such”.
He said the interests of the poor, amputees, orphans and other vulnerable children who were to benefit from the donor funds and property far outweighed the accused persons’.
Defense for the first accused, Roland Wright, objected to the prosecutor’s submission, arguing that his client had spent all his adult life “in devoted service to God and the rural communities”.
He pleaded with the court to consider the medical condition of the accused, adding that “he may not survive a jail term as there is no specialized hospital in the country”. He furthered that the pastor had single-handedly established his church which now had branches all over the country “long before the arrival of donors and well-wishers”.
“Out of humanitarian feelings for orphans, he set up orphanages in the little branches of his church and has made significant impact in their lives one way or the other”, the defense submitted.
In his ruling, Justice Katutsi said it was obvious that the pastor had given hope to the hopeless and a smile to the wretched for which “you will be blessed” but added that the court would rule on that basis.
He sentenced the first accused to a fine of Le 250 million or six years imprisonment in default and the second to a fine of Le 30 million or three years in default. He ordered that the fines must be paid within thirty days.
Speaking to Politico, state prosecutor Kanu said they were fine with the ruling delivered by the court though they would have preferred custodial sentence. He said the law created the alternative for a custodial, a fine or both.
© Politico 06/08/13
