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Sierra Leone on Wednesday charged former president Ernest Bai Koroma with treason and different offences for his alleged function in what authorities have known as an tried coup on November 26, authorities mentioned.
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 Data Minister Chernor Bah mentioned.
On November 26, armed attackers stormed a navy armoury, two barracks, two prisons and two police stations, clashing with safety forces.
Twenty-one folks have been killed and tons of of prisoners escaped earlier than authorities have been capable of regain management after what they deemed a coup try by members of the armed forces.
At the least 80 folks have been arrested in reference to the clashes, most of them navy personnel.
Authorities mentioned in early December that the previous president had been confined to his house, amid questioning.
“The previous president goes house,” 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 folks with treason in reference to the coup try, together with Amadu Koita, a former soldier and bodyguard of Koroma.
Koita was extensively adopted on social networks the place he criticised the federal government of present President Julius Maada Bio, based on police.
– ECOWAS mission –
An advisor to Koroma, Sheriff Mahmud Ismail, advised AFP earlier than the fees have been introduced that the previous president was discussing exile in Nigeria, a regional heavyweight which at the moment 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”.
Overseas Minister Timothy Kabba insisted that the mission wouldn’t be a navy intervention, noting comparable 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
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