© Reuters. Sierra Leone’s former President Ernest Bai Koroma addresses a world observers briefing on Kenya’s basic election organised by the Unbiased Electoral and Boundaries Fee (IEBC) in Nairobi, Kenya August 11, 2022. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi/
By Umaru Fofana
FREETOWN (Reuters) -Sierra Leone’s ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma has been charged with 4 offences together with treason for his alleged function in a failed navy try to topple the West African nation’s authorities in November, a courtroom within the capital Freetown stated on Wednesday.
The courtroom’s resolution might escalate tensions in Sierra Leone coming after the tried coup and a contentious election by which President Julius Maada Bio was reelected for a second time period in June 2023.
Tensions have been on the rise within the nation that’s nonetheless recovering from a 1991-2002 civil battle by which greater than 50,000 had been killed.
The results of the election was rejected by the primary opposition candidate, and questioned by worldwide companions together with america and the European Union.
Gunmen on Nov. 26 attacked navy barracks, a jail and different places in Sierra Leone, liberating about 2,200 inmates and killing greater than 20 folks.
The federal government stated later that it was a foiled coup led principally by Koroma’s bodyguards. They summoned the ex-president for questioning at first of December.
The previous president condemned the assaults in an announcement shortly after they occurred.
Koroma’s fees, which additionally embrace misprision of treason and two counts of harbouring, had been learn out whereas he stood within the dock and a few of his supporters cried within the courtroom.
“A dangerous precedent has been set… We are dragging a former head of state – democratically elected – on trumped up charges under a political vendetta,” Koroma’s lawyer, Joseph Kamara, instructed Reuters.
A excessive courtroom afterward Wednesday granted bail to the previous president, who’s presently restricted at his house within the capital. The case was adjourned till Jan. 17.
In line with Sierra Leone’s penal code, an individual discovered responsible of treason might face imprisonment for all times.
A letter from West Africa’s principal regional bloc, ECOWAS, dated Tuesday and seen by Reuters, stated Nigeria had provided to host Koroma on a short lived foundation, and that the previous president had accepted the provide.
Sierra Leone’s overseas minister, Timothy Kabba, instructed Reuters the federal government had obtained the letter, which he stated didn’t precisely replicate the assembly President Bio has not too long ago held with an ECOWAS delegation in Freetown.
Kabba stated the federal government will “not countenance” the proposal to relocate Koroma.
Twelve different folks even have been charged with treason in reference to the failed coup, together with ex-police and correctional officers and a member of Koromoa’s safety element, the federal government stated on Tuesday.