President
Justice Isaac Lenaola was appointed President of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone on 27 February 2026. Before assuming this role, he served as Vice President under Justice Lussick, whose term has recently concluded. Hon. Justice Isaac Lenaola is an alumni of the University of Nairobi and the Kenya School of Law degree.
After admission to the bar, he practiced law in Nairobi specializing in Commercial Law and Land Law and served as a Commissioner both at the Peoples Commission of Kenya (PCK) and at the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission (CKRC). He also served as a member of the Tribunal Investigating the conduct of Puisne Judges.
He joined the judicial service in 2003 and worked as Resident Judge in Embu, Meru, Machakos and Kakamega High Courts. As a High Court Judge, Hon. Lenaola also served as a Commissioner at the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) where he also served as Chairman, Human Resource and Administration Committee (HRAC). He was previously a Member of the Board, Judicial Training Institute (JTI) and Chairman and member of various Judiciary Committees as well as Chairman of the Kenya Magistrates and Judges Association (KMJA) and Treasurer of the East African Magistrates and Judges Association (EAMJA).
Until his appointment as Judge of the Supreme Court, Judge Lenaola was the Presiding Judge of the Constitutional and Human Rights Division at the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi where he rendered illuminating and ground breaking decisions on human rights, devolution, separation of powers among other areas of jurisprudence. In all the stations he served outside Nairobi, he is reputed for diligence, hard work and has on many occasions been cited as an example in the best of case management and backlog clearance.
Justice Lenaola has served as Judge and Deputy Principal Judge of the Court of First Instance of the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) from 2011 to 2018 and as a Judge at the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone (RSCL) from 2013 to-date.
He is President of the Advisory Council of the Strathmore Institute for Advanced Studies in International Criminal Justice (SIASIC) and President of the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (IARMJ). He is a Fellow of McLaughlin College, York University, Toronto, Canada and Fellow, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). He is also Chairman of the Judicial Action Group (JAG) and a member of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association, (CMJA), the Accountability Panel of the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) and also the African Judges and Jurists Forum (AJJF).
He was awarded the Law Society of Kenya award for distinguished service in the Administration of Justice (2008), the East African Law Society honorary membership award for exemplary service and the development of jurisprudence in Kenya and the East African Region (2015) as well as distinguished service awards in the service of the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (IARMJ) (2014 and 2018). He is also a recipient of the Moran of the Burning Spear (MBS) from the President of the Republic of Kenya for distinguished service in the administration of justice in Kenya and the East African Region. He has also been named Jurist of the Year by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)—Kenya Chapter (2019).
Prosecutor
James C. “Jim” Johnson initially joined the Office of the Prosecutor at the SCSL in 2003 as a Senior Trial Attorney, and was named Chief of Prosecutions in January 2006.
After he left the SCSL in 2012 he served for three years as President and CEO of the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York.
Since 2013 he has been an Adjunct Professor of Law and Director of the Henry T. King War Crimes Research Office, Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also Director of the International Humanitarian Law Roundtable and President of the Global Accountability Network.
Prior to joining the SCSL, he served for twenty years as a Judge Advocate in the United States Army. He was named Prosecutor of the RSCSL in September 2019.
Registrar
Binta Mansaray was appointed Registrar of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone by the Secretary-General of the United Nations in September 2014. She had served as Acting Registrar of the Residual Special Court since its inception in January 2014. She previously served as Registrar of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, a post she held from February 2010 to December 2013, when the Special Court closed upon the successful completion of its mandate. From July 2007 to February 2010, she was Deputy Registrar, and while continuing to hold that post, she was appointed Acting Registrar in June 2009.
Ms. Mansaray first joined the Special Court in 2003 as Outreach Coordinator, during which time she designed the Court’s widely-acclaimed Grassroots Programme to keep the people of Sierra Leone, and later Liberia, informed about the Court and its trials. Prior to joining the Court, Ms. Mansaray was a human rights advocate for victims and women and adolescent ex-combatants of the Sierra Leone armed conflict, working with a number of organizations: She held the post of Protection Partner/Country Representative for the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children in Sierra Leone; she worked with the Campaign for Good Governance, several civil society organizations, and she served as a consultant with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).
As Registrar of the Residual Special Court, she initiated and oversaw the refurbishment, development and expansion of the Sierra Leone Peace Museum, which seeks to educate visitors, through artifacts and records, about Sierra Leone’s civil war and its aftermath, and about transitional justice. The Museum houses the public records of the Special Court for the benefit of Sierra Leoneans, visiting researchers and future generations. The Museum also has a Memorial Garden designed to promote contemplation of the tragedy of the country’s armed conflict, and in remembrance of those who lost their lives.
Ms. Mansaray is a graduate of the University of Sierra Leone. She holds a Master’s degree in French from Fordham University in New York; a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Policy from American University in Washington, DC; and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Corporate Governance from the University of Cumbria. She also obtained a certificate upon successfully completing a one-year training programme on Women and Armed Conflict, organized by ISIS-WICCE in Kampala from 1999 to 2000.
In April 2018, Ms. Mansaray was inducted by the American University into Pi Alpha Alpha, a Global Honour Society which recognizes outstanding scholarship in public administration and public affairs. The awards and recognition she has received include the following: In July 2022, Ms. Mansaray was the recipient of the first National Reconciliation Award for her dedicated contribution to transitional justice and human rights in Sierra Leone for over a decade. In 2014, she was made Commander of the Order of the Rokel by then-President Ernest Bai Koroma for her work at the Special Court.
The Order of the Rokel is Sierra Leone’s highest civilian award. In 2006, she was named Princess Kavura by the then Paramount Chief of Moyamba District in Sierra Leone for outstanding work as Outreach Coordinator in the district. In December 2005, she was an honoree of Global Rights in Washington, DC, in recognition of her remarkable role in promoting the rights of women during the war in Sierra Leone.
Principal Defender
Ibrahim Yillah is a graduate of Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone. He obtained his LLB (Hons) in 1996 in Freetown, and later graduated with LLM at the University of Pretoria in Human Right Law.
He was appointed Principal Defender in 2014. Fourah Bay College University of Sierra Leone. He previously served as Counsel in the Defence Office at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and also as Trial Attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the Netherlands.
He has considerable experience in Criminal Litigation, and he is also currently working as a Consultant in Environmental Law in Sierra Leone.