Ernest Bai Koroma, the former Sierra Leonean President has been charged with treason and other offenses, in connection with an attempted coup.
Recall that in November 2023, gunmen stormed a military armoury and several prisons in Freetown, liberating about 2,000 inmates.
Koroma has since denied any involvement in the attack which killed around 20 people.
West African leaders had tried to mediate a deal for Mr Koroma to go into exile in Nigeria if the charges were waived.
According to the BBC, Mr Koroma had agreed to the deal, negotiated by the regional group, ECOWAS.
However, the Sierra Leone Foreign Minster Timothy Kabba had informed the BBC that the government had not supported the proposal, which he described as a “unilateral proposition” by the president of the ECOWAS Commission.
Some of Koroma’s supporters lamented as the charges were read out.
Mr Koroma had been under house arrest since being interrogated over his part in the coup.
He had been the president for 11 years until 2018, when the current President, Julius Maada Bio was elected.
On Tuesday, 12 additional people were charged over the attempted coup, including one of Koroma’s former security guards.
The attempted coup had come five months after a controversial election which saw President Bio just barely clinch a second term ticket.
The results were refused by Mr Koroma’s All People’s Congress. International observers had also castigated the elections, spotlighting a lack of transparency in the count.
