Sierra Leone on Wednesday charged former president Ernest Bai Koroma with treason and different offences for his alleged position in what authorities have known as an tried coup on November 26, authorities stated.
Koroma, who led the West African nation from 2007 to 2018, had beforehand been questioned, with authorities saying he was an official suspect within the organisation of the coup try.
“The previous president is charged with 4 offences, together with treason, misprision of treason, and two counts of harbouring,” an announcement signed by Info Minister Chernor Bah stated.
On November 26, armed attackers stormed a army armoury, two barracks, two prisons and two police stations, clashing with safety forces.
Twenty-one individuals have been killed and a whole bunch of prisoners escaped earlier than authorities have been in a position to regain management after what they deemed a coup try by members of the armed forces.
No less than 80 individuals have been arrested in reference to the clashes, most of them army personnel.
Authorities stated in early December that the previous president had been confined to his residence, amid questioning.
“The previous president goes residence,” Koroma’s lawyer, Ady Macauley, advised AFP on Wednesday, including that the case had been adjourned till January 17.
A big safety element was arrange close to the court docket within the capital Freetown the place Koroma’s listening to was going down.
Sierra Leone on Tuesday additionally charged 12 individuals with treason in reference to the coup try, together with Amadu Koita, a former soldier and bodyguard of Koroma.
Koita was broadly adopted on social networks the place he criticised the federal government of present President Julius Maada Bio, in response to police.
– ECOWAS mission –
An advisor to Koroma, Sheriff Mahmud Ismail, advised AFP earlier than the costs have been introduced that the previous president was discussing exile in Nigeria, a regional heavyweight which at present holds the presidency of regional bloc ECOWAS.
An ECOWAS delegation led by the leaders of Senegal and Ghana visited Sierra Leone on December 23 to put the groundwork for a “safety mission” within the wake of the tried coup.
A latest ECOWAS summit launched the delegation to “facilitate the deployment of a safety mission to Sierra Leone to assist stabilise the nation”.
International Minister Timothy Kabba insisted that the mission wouldn’t be a army intervention, noting related forces in Gambia and Guinea Bissau.
The violence in Sierra Leone on the finish of November had sparked fears of one other coup in West Africa, the place Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea have all skilled putsches since 2020.
sb-amt/acc/giv
Initially printed as S.Leone ex-president charged over ‘coup try’
