The former President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma has been charged with treason following last year’s disturbances which left more than 20 people dead when gunmen broke into a military armory and several prisons in Freetown, freeing almost 2,000 inmates.
The incident which happened five months after a disputed election which saw President Bio narrowly re-elected for a second term was described as an attempted coup by the government.
However, the former President denied any involvement in the act and has been under arrest on treason charges ever since.
According to the BBC, West African leaders tried to broker a deal for Mr Koroma to go into exile in Nigeria if the charges were dropped and he had asserted to that deal but, Sierra Leone Foreign Minister Timothy said government did not support the proposal, which he described as a “unilateral proposition” by the president of the Ecowas Commission.
Some of Mr Koroma’s supporters cried in court as the charges were read out with his lawyer, Joseph Kamara, describing the judgment as a “dangerous precedent”.
“A dark cloud has shadowed the skies of our country, meaning that we are dragging a former head of state – democratically elected – on trumped-up charges under a political vendetta,” he said.
Meanwhile government arrested 12 people including one of Mr Koroma’s former bodyguards on Tuesday over attempted coup charges while his daughter, Dankay Koroma, has previously been named on a list of wanted suspects by the police.
Mr Koroma has been under house arrest since the ‘attempted coup’ incident having been president for 11 years until 2018, when current President Julius Maada Bio was elected.
By Desmond Nleya
