- Rebels' sentences range from 25 to 52 years
- Sentences include world's first for forced marriage
- Prosecution says sentences honour victims
(Adds byline, background, quotes from the prosecution)
By Christo Johnson
FREETOWN, April 8 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's U.N.-backed Special Court sentenced three former rebel commanders to jail terms of between 25 and 52 years on Wednesday for a range of offences during the country's 1991-2002 civil war.
Issa Hassan Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao, the most senior surviving commanders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), whose uprising triggered the war, were found guilty on Feb. 25 of various war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Their convictions included the world's first for the specific offences of attacks on peacekeepers and forced marriage. All three were also convicted of recruiting child soldiers and other crimes.
"These sentences recognise the gravity of the terrible atrocities for which these men have been held responsible," Stephen Rapp, the prosecutor of the Special Court, said in a statement issued after the sentences were delivered.
"Most importantly they honour the victims, the thousands of men, women and children of Sierra Leone, who suffered because of the acts and decisions of these individuals," Rapp added.
The war, depicted in the 2006 film "Blood Diamond", saw bands of rebels including drug-crazed child soldiers kill, rape or chop the hands off innocent villagers in a conflict fuelled and financed by gems taken from its eastern diamond fields.
FIRST RUF REBELS IN COURT
For the first count against each defendant, Sesay was sentenced to 52 years in jail, Kallon 40 years and Gbao 25.
The total jail terms were 693, 340 and 327 years respectively, though each one's terms are to run concurrently. Both defence and prosecution may appeal elements of the conviction and sentences.
The three are the first RUF rebels to be tried by the court, which has already jailed members of a pro-government militia and those of a separate rebel group formed by members of a former military junta.
Rapp praised the court's judges for contributing to international humanitarian law, saying their judgements would "be cited by courts across the world in the years ahead".
Barring appeals, Wednesday's judgement leaves Charles Taylor, the former president of neighbouring Liberia, as the last indictee of the Freetown-based court.
Taylor is on trial on charges of fomenting Sierra Leone's conflict during his own country's 1989-2003 civil war in return for diamonds from eastern Sierra Leone.
His trial is being held at a special sitting of the Sierra Leone court in The Hague because of fears that it might endanger regional stability if held in West Africa.
(For a factbox on the judgement click here [ID:nL8949249]) (Writing by Alistair Thomson and David Lewis)