Judiciary Moves to Strengthen Asset Recovery Systems

Chief Justice Komba Kamanda has reaffirmed the Judiciary’s commitment to strengthening Sierra Leone’s fight against financial crimes, stressing the need for robust legal mechanisms to recover the proceeds of crime.

The assurance was given on Thursday, 25 June 2026, when he received a high-level delegation from the Asset Recovery Inter-Agency Network for West Africa (ARINWA) at his chambers on Siaka Stevens Street in Freetown. The delegation was led by the Director of Sierra Leone’s Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA), David N. Borbor.

The meeting focused on the development of a comprehensive Asset Recovery and Management Framework aimed at strengthening Sierra Leone’s capacity to trace, confiscate, and manage assets acquired through criminal activity.

Justice Kamanda emphasized that offenders should not benefit from the proceeds of crime, describing asset recovery as a key pillar in the fight against corruption, organised crime, money laundering, terrorism financing, and other transnational offences.

“Crime should never pay,” he stated, noting that a strong asset recovery regime is essential to promoting accountability, strengthening public confidence in the justice system, and safeguarding the integrity of national institutions.

He further explained that effective legal frameworks for tracing and recovering illicit assets would help deter criminal activity while protecting the country’s economic and governance systems from exploitation by criminal networks.

The ARINWA delegation included senior officials from West Africa, among them representatives from Senegal’s National Office for the Recovery of Criminal Assets (ONRAC) and officials from Sierra Leone’s Financial Intelligence Agency.

Discussions also focused on strengthening regional cooperation in asset recovery through improved information sharing, institutional collaboration, and coordinated responses to cross-border financial crimes across West Africa.

The engagement forms part of broader efforts to align Sierra Leone’s legal and judicial systems with international best practices in asset recovery and financial crime prevention, while reinforcing partnerships with regional institutions committed to combating organised crime.