Brenda J. Hollis
Principal Trial Lawyer in charge of the Ukraine investigation at the International Criminal Court
Biography
Brenda J. Hollis was appointed Prosecutor of the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone in January 2014, and Reserve International Co-Prosecutor of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia in April 2015. She also serves as an Expert Legal Consultant on international criminal law and procedure, and as a member of the Advisory Board of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. She served as Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) from February 2010 to December 2013. From 2007 to 2010, she was the Principal Trial Attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP), responsible for leading the legal team prosecuting former Liberian President Charles Taylor, which position she held until the appeal in that case was concluded. From 2001 to 2007, Ms. Hollis was an Expert Legal Consultant on international criminal law and procedure. During this period she trained judges, prosecutors and investigators at courts and international tribunals in Indonesia, Iraq and Cambodia. She also assisted victims of international crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Colombia to prepare submissions requesting investigations by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In 2002 and 2003, and again in 2006, Ms. Hollis served as a legal consultant to the Prosecutor of the SCSL, taking part in the first investigative missions, drafting several of the first indictments and, in 2006, drafting the amended indictment against Mr. Taylor and preparing that case for trial. Ms. Hollis held various legal positions in the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) from 1994 to 2001, including serving as lead counsel in a number of historic prosecutions. She led the reopening of the case in which rape was charged as torture, and was lead counsel in the preparation of the case against former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic until her departure from the ICTY in 2001. Ms. Hollis is a former US Peace Corps volunteer, and retired from the US Air Force with the rank of Colonel.