Sir George Desmond Lorenz de Silva, (13 December 1939 – 2 June 2018) was a British

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law i ...

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and

international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...

yer who served as the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Chief War Crimes Prosecutor in

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

Early life

Desmond de Silva was of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan, English, and Scottish descent, and comes from a family of lawyers. He was the son of

Fredrick de Silva Edmund Fredrick Lorenz de Silva, (1912 – 1993) was a Ceylonese lawyer and politician. He was the Mayor of Kandy, Member of Parliament and Sri Lanka's Ambassador to France. Early life and legal career Born to George E. de Silva a prominent ...

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

, formerly

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

's ambassador to France and Switzerland, and his wife Esme Gregg de Silva; a grandson of

George E. de Silva George Edmund de Silva (8 June 1879 - 12 March 1950) was a Ceylonese lawyer and politician. He was the first Cabinet Minister of Industries, Industrial Research and Fisheries in independent Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) (1947–1948), a Member of Parli ...

; and a second cousin of

Lasantha Wickrematunge Lasantha Manilal Wickrematunge ( si, ලසන්ත වික්‍රමතුංග, ta, லசந்த விக்கிரமதுங்க; 5 April 1958 – 8 January 2009) was a high-profile Sri Lankan journalist, politician, br ...

. Educated at

Dulwich College Preparatory School Dulwich Prep London (DPL), formerly known as Dulwich College Preparatory School, is an independent preparatory school in Dulwich, south London, England for boys aged 3–13 years. The current Head Master is Louise Davidson. In 1938 headmaster ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and

Trinity College, Kandy "Look to the End" , mottoes = , founder = John Ireland Jones , established = , type = Independent Private , affiliation = Church of Ceylon, Anglican , grade ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, de Silva trained as a barrister at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

, London. "De Silva, Rt Hon. Sir Desmond (George Lorenz)", in '' Who's Who and Who Was Who'', online edition, https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U13560 Published 01 December 2018: "De Silva, Rt Hon. Sir Desmond (George Lorenz) (13 Dec. 1939–2 June 2018), QC 1984; international lawyer; Chief Prosecutor of UN-sponsored Special Court for Sierra Leone, 2005–06; Kt 2007; PC 2011; Born 13 Dec. 1939; s of late Edmund Frederick Lorenz de Silva, MBE, and Esme Gregg de Silva…"

Career

De Silva was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

from the

in 1964, and was appointed a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of ...

in 1984. A member of the Criminal Bar Association and the International Association of Prosecutors, he became one of the highest-profile criminal Queen's Counsel in England. In 2002, the UN

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder ...

appointed him as Deputy Prosecutor for the

Special Court for Sierra Leone The Special Court for Sierra Leone, or the "Special Court" (SCSL), also called the Sierra Leone Tribunal, was a judicial body set up by the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations to "prosecute persons who bear the greatest responsibil ...

, at the level of an Assistant Secretary-General, and in 2005 promoted him to the post of Chief Prosecutor at the higher level of

Under Secretary-General An under-secretary-general of the United Nations (USG) is a senior official within the United Nations System, normally appointed by the General Assembly on the recommendation of the secretary-general for a renewable term of four years. Under-s ...

. Silva brought about the arrest of Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, who was convicted of war crimes at the Hague in 2011. In 2003, de Silva was sent as envoy by the United Nations Development Programme to Belgrade to persuade Prime Minister

Vojislav Kostunica Vojislav ( sr-Cyrl, Војислав, ) is a Serbian masculine given name, a Slavic dithematic name (of two lexemes), derived from the Slavic words ''voj'' ("war, warrior"), and ''slava'' ("glory, fame"), which both are very common in Slavic nam ...

and his government to surrender indicted war criminals. He became a senior associate member of

St Antony's College, Oxford St Antony's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in international relations, economic ...

, and a Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. De Silva's legal expertise included war crimes, crimes against humanity, espionage, treason, drugs, terrorism, human rights, white-collar fraud and sports law. His clients included

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the assi ...

Lee Bowyer Lee David Bowyer (; born 3 January 1977) is an English football manager and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder who featured for Charlton Athletic, Leeds United, West Ham United (two spells), Newcastle United, Birming ...

Buzz Aldrin Buzz Aldrin (; born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.; January 20, 1930) is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission. As the Lunar Module ''Eagle'' pilot on the 1969 A ...

Harry Redknapp Henry James Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is an English former football manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City. In his ...

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nick ...

Hans Segers Johannes "Hans" Segers (born 30 October 1961) is a Dutch football coach and former professional player who played as a goalkeeper. As a player, he notably spent eight years with Wimbledon where he featured in the Premier League. He also played ...

Lawrence Dallaglio Lorenzo Bruno Nero Dallaglio (born 10 August 1972), known as Lawrence Dallaglio, is an English retired rugby union player, former captain of England, and 2016 inductee of the World Rugby Hall of Fame. He played as a flanker or number eight ...

Graham Rix Graham Cyril Rix (born 23 October 1957) is an English former professional football player who later became a coach and manager. He is the current manager of Fareham Town. He played for Arsenal for thirteen years, then Brentford (on loan), Cae ...

and Jamie Osborne. De Silva was a member of the Governing Council of the Manorial Society. In October 2011, with the approval of

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...

, de Silva was appointed to head a Review into collusion by the security services and other agencies of the state into the 1989 murder of the high-profile Belfast lawyer

Pat Finucane Patrick Finucane (; 21 March 1949 – 12 February 1989) was an Irish lawyer who specialised in criminal defence work. Finucane came to prominence due to his successful challenge of the British government in several important human rights cases ...

. The report was published on 12 December 2012, and acknowledged "a willful and abject failure by successive Governments"; however, Finucane's family called the de Silva report a "sham". In 2019 the Supreme Court ruled that the official investigation into the Finucane murder was ineffective and failed to meet the required human rights standards. On 23 July 2010, he was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate Israel's interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla in international waters that led to 9 deaths. In 2014, he was Chairman of an Inquiry into torture and executions of detainees in Syria. The Report produced went before the Geneva 11 Peace Talks into the civil war in Syria. On 10 January 2016, a Senior Army Commander complained about a "witch hunt" against British soldiers who were Iraq War veterans by pursuing frivolous legal claims. De Silva agreed with the Army Chief by saying, "Up to now nobody has got these ambulance-chasing lawyers by the scruff of the neck."

Personal life and death

He married

Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia, Lady de Silva (born 28 November 1959) is an English businessperson specialising in etiquette and decorum courses. She is a member of the extended former Yugoslavian royal family. Early life Katarina was born in L ...

on 5 December 1987. She was the daughter of

Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia ( sr-cyr, Томислав Карађорђевић, Tomislav Karađorđević; 19 January 1928 – 12 July 2000) was a member of the House of Karađorđević, the second son of King Alexander I and Queen Maria of Yug ...

and

Princess Margarita of Baden Princess Margarita of Baden (''Margarete Alice Thyra Viktoria Marie Louise Scholastica''; 14 July 1932 – 15 January 2013) was the only daughter of Berthold, Margrave of Baden, and Princess Theodora of Greece and Denmark. She was the cousin of K ...

, a granddaughter of King

Alexander I of Yugoslavia Alexander I ( sr-Cyrl, Александар I Карађорђевић, Aleksandar I Karađorđević, ) ( – 9 October 1934), also known as Alexander the Unifier, was the prince regent of the Kingdom of Serbia from 1914 and later the King of Yug ...

and the great-great-great-granddaughter of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

. They divorced on 6 May 2010. He had one sister, Helga de Silva, whose son Detmar Blow was married to the late

Isabella Blow Isabella "Issie" Blow (nee Delves Broughton; 19 November 1958 – 7 May 2007) was an English magazine editor. As the muse of hat designer Philip Treacy, she is credited with discovering the models Stella Tennant and Sophie Dahl as well as pr ...

. Sir Desmond de Silva died on 2 June 2018 after a stroke following elective heart surgery in November 2017.

Honours

De Silva was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

in the

2007 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2007 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Hono ...

, and was also a Knight of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John and a Knight Commander of the

Royal Order of Francis I The Royal Order of Francis I (properly 'The Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies' it, Reale Ordine di Francesco I) was an extinct order of merit of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which was annexed in 1861 by the King of Italy (u ...

. He was sworn in as a Member of the

Privy Council of the United Kingdom The Privy Council (PC), officially His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Its membership mainly comprises senior politicians who are current or former members of e ...

in October 2011. On 22 August 2016,

Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia ( sr, Александар Карађорђевић, Престолонаследник Југославије; born 17 July 1945 in London), is the head of the House of Karađorđević, the former royal h ...

awarded him with the Grand Cross of the Order of the White Eagle.

References

External links

www.sirdesmonddesilvaqc.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Silva, Sir Desmond Lorenz 1939 births 2018 deaths English King's Counsel Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom English barristers Members of the Middle Temple British officials of the United Nations Special Court for Sierra Leone prosecutors Knights Bachelor Lawyers awarded knighthoods Alumni of Trinity College, Kandy English people of Sri Lankan descent English people of Scottish descent Desmond