Miatta Maria Samba

She earned a Bachelor of Laws from the Fourah Bay College of the University of Sierra Leone[2] and obtained a Master of Law (MSc) in Human Rights and Democratization of Africa from the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2001.[3] In addition she also received an LL.M from the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee in Scotland.[2] Since 1999 she is a member of the Bar of Sierra Leone.[2]

Her professional career Samba began in 2002, working as a lawyer for the prosecution at the Special Court for Sierra Leone[4] concerning crimes during the civil war in Sierra Leone. In 2003 she became a lecturer for law at the Fourah Bay College.[5][2] In 2006 she left for Uganda, where she joined the countries Field Office of the International Criminal Court.[6] Having returned to Sierra Leone in 2009,[4] she served as a Senior Prosecutor for the Anti Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone in two occasions, once from 2010 to 2012 and also between 2014 and 2015.[2] In 2015 she assumed as a Judge for the High Court of Sierra Leone,[4] a post she held until March 2019.[2] In 2019, she was elected as a Judge at the Court of Appeal in Sierra Leone.[4] In January 2020, she was appointed as a Judge to the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone (RSCSL)[5] which replaced the Special Courts for Sierra Leone.[7] The court was integrated by sixteen judges, which in part were nominated by the United Nations and six by the Government of Sierra Leone.[8] In May 2020, Samba was nominated to the International Criminal Court (ICC) by the Government of Sierra Leone.[4] She was elected in December 2020[5] and assumed in March 2021 for nine years.[1] She presides over the chambers concerning Paul Gicheru[1] from Kenya and Mahamat Said Abdel Kani[1] from the Central African Republic.[9] In February she was also appointed a judge to the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone by President Julius Maada Bio.[10] From the post at the Supreme Court in Sierra Leone she was granted leave in August 2021.[11]