Freetown, Sierra Leone — Former Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma has been charged with four counts of treason in connection with an attempted coup.
"The former president is charged with four offenses, including treason, misprision of reason, and two counts of harboring," a statement released by the country's Ministry of Information and Civic Education said on Wednesday, January 3.
In November of last year, Freetown experienced an incident where armed individuals broke into a military armory and several prisons, resulting in the release of almost 2,000 inmates. Approximately 20 people lost their lives during the attack.
There have been reports that West African leaders attempted to mediate a deal whereby Mr. Koroma, the former president, would go into exile in Nigeria if the charges against him were dropped, the BBC said.
It is worth noting that the Sierra Leone government has stated its non-support for this proposal, with Foreign Minister Timothy Kabba telling the BBC that the government sees it as a unilateral proposition by the president of the ECOWAS Commission. During the court proceedings, the BBC said, some of Mr. Koroma's supporters were reportedly emotional as the charges were read out.
Koroma's lawyer reportedly expressed shock and disbelief, claiming that the charges set a dangerous precedent and that they constituted a politically motivated vendetta against the former president.
"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.
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Since being questioned about the coup attempt, Mr. Koroma has been under house arrest.
Koroma is the immediate past president of Sierra Leone. He served as president for 11 years until the election in 2018, which saw the current President Julius Maada Bio come to power. Bio is now serving his second term.
On a separate note, 12 other individuals, including one of Mr. Koroma's former bodyguards, have also been charged in relation to the attempted coup.
The former president's daughter, Dankay Koroma, has previously been listed as a wanted suspect by the police, although she has not provided any comment on the matter.
The attempted coup occurred five months after a disputed election, which was marred by allegations of a lack of transparency in the vote count and resulted in tensions between the All People's Congress, led by Mr. Koroma, and the government.
