George Gelaga King

Who is George Gelaga King?

Justice George Gelaga King of Sierra Leone is a judge in West Africa and currently a justice on the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

Justice George Gelaga King has been President of the Sierra Leone Court of Appeal and of Court of Appeal of the Gambia. He served as Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to France, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland from 1974 to 1978, and was at the same time Sierra Leone’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO. Between 1978 and 1980 he served as Sierra Leone’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Justice King taught law at the Sierra Leone Law School from 1990 to 2005. He is Chairman of both the Sierra Leone Law Journal and the Gambian National Council for Law Reporting, and was a member of the Sierra Leone Council of Legal Education. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

He has been a Judge of the Special Court for Sierra Leone since December 2002. He was president of the court from 2006 to 2008, being elected to two one-year terms. The Appeals Court Judges also selected Justice Emmanuel Ayoola of Nigeria as Vice-President at the same time King was reelected. He will succeed Justice Renate Winter of Austria.