Indicted war crime suspect, Chief Samuel Hinga, made his opening statements yesterday June 15, 2004 before the trial chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone in defence of his innocence of all the allegation against him.

The opening statements of chief Norman included among other things, his plans to go about his defence in view of the crimes he is charged with and will no doubt be an important step forward in the trail proceedings, which has been held at bay for close to two weeks, following wrangling concerning the pattern of representation of Chief Norman.

It could be noted that on June 3rd, 2004, when the trail was scheduled to commence, Chief Norman dismissed his defence and opted for self defence.

Taking into consideration the legal constraints the chief will face in defending himself, the trail chamber deemed it fit to order that a team of standby counsels be assigned to him and that this team may include members of his former defence team.

Already, four lawyers, namely Mr. Quiney Whittaker (British), Mr. Tim Owen (British), Mr. John Wesley Hall (American) and Dr. Bu-Bukei Jabbie (Sierra Leone) have been appointed by the registrar of the court, Mr. Robin Vincent, to serve in the stand-by defence team of chief Norman.

While chief Norman would be doing the actual representation, the stand-by team will always be by his side to provide him with the legal and technical assistance he may need.

Meanwhile, the former defence team comprising of Messers Jenkins Johnston, Suliaman Banja-Tejan-Sei and Adeatu Jalloh have addressed a letter dated July 14, 2004 to the court indicating that they no longer intend or wish to represent chief Norman in any capacity.