By Kemo Cham
The Sierra Leone government says 12 people have been slammed charges of treason for their alleged involvement in the November 26 failed attempted coup.
Among those charged is Bai Mahmoud Bangura, a former Youth Minister under former president Ernest Bai Koroma, who is himself a suspect in the matter.
Also on the charge sheet is another associate of the former President, Amadu Koita, a former military officer described by the government as one of the top masterminds of the failed coup.
A statement released by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education on Tuesday evening said the other suspects charged included ex-police and correctional officers.
The charges they faced, it noted, include misprision of treason, harbouring, aiding and abetting the enemy.
The accused, with the exception of Bangura, were arraigned before a magistrate court in Freetown, the statement added.
It said that Mr Bangura, who was one time an influential youth leader of the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC), couldn’t report to court due to ill-health. He is reportedly admitted at the police hospital in Kingtom.
Twenty-one people lost their lives in the incident on November 26 which began with an attack on the armory of the country’s main military barracks in Wilberforce and spreading to other parts of Freetown.
The attackers also breached the Pademba Road maximum security prison and freed dozens of inmates. Among those freed were men accused of involvement in an earlier alleged coup.
Eighteen of the victims were members of the security forces.
The government has repeatedly vowed to ensure that all those involved are brought to book.
As of December 10, over 50 people suspected of involvement in the November 26 plot were in detention, including former President Koroma. Over three dozen others were declared wanted, among them his daughter.
Koroma himself has appeared before police investigators at the Criminal Investigators Department on three occasions.
The government said he became a subject of the investigation because many of those suspected of involvement in the failed coup were his former associates.
Koroma is placed under house arrest at his private residence in Freetown, with limited outside access to him.
