Sierra Leone charges 12 with treason over coup attempt

Amadu Koita, who the government claims was one of the organizers of the coup attempt, was among those indicted.

Koita, a former soldier and bodyguard for former President Ernest Koroma, was widely followed on social networks, where he criticized current President Julius Bio’s government.

He was arrested on December 4 and is one of 85 people detained in connection with the November 26 incidents, the majority of whom are military personnel.

According to a statement signed by Sierra Leone’s Information Minister, Chernor Bah, the 12 suspected perpetrators were charged with “treason, misprision of treason, harboring, aiding, and abetting the enemy,” among other things.

Eleven of them were taken before a judge in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, with one of the accused’s cases being postponed owing to illness, according to the statement, which added that all had legal representation.

Armed assailants assaulted a military armory, two barracks, two jails, and two police stations on November 26, clashing with security forces.

Twenty-one people were slain, and hundreds of convicts fled before authorities regained control following what they called a coup attempt by members of the military forces.

Fears of another coup erupted in West Africa, where Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea have all had putches since 2020.