Sierra Leone court finds 11 involved in alleged coup guilty. Leader sentenced to almost 200 years

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — A Sierra Leone court found 11 people guilty of treason and other offenses following what authorities have called an attempted coup, with their leader sentenced to almost 200 years in prison, a judiciary spokesman said Tuesday.

In November, dozens of gunmen broke into the country’s armory and into a prison where the majority of the more than 2,000 inmates were freed. The clashes left 18 security forces dead. Authorities at the time said they arrested around 80 suspects, and a dozen were charged in January, including former president Ernest Bai Koroma, later granted medical leave.

The man accused of leading the attack, Amadu Koita Makalo, was sentenced Monday to 182 years in prison on charges of treason, murder and shooting with intent to murder, the judiciary’s spokesperson, Moses Lamin Kamara, told the Associated Press.

Makalo is an ex-bodyguard of Koroma and has been a vocal critic of the current President Julius Maada Bio on social media. The other 10 were also found guilty of treason and murder and received lengthy prison sentences ranging from 30 to 112 years.

Although officially retired from politics, Koroma remains an influential figure within his political party. Many of those arrested in connection to the attack were former associates of the ex-president, Information Minister Chernor Bah told the AP.

There have been political tensions in Sierra Leone since Bio’s reelection last year in a vote that the opposition claimed was rigged in his favor. Two months after he was reelected, police said they arrested several people, including senior military officers planning to use protests “to undermine peace.”

Sierra Leone is still healing from an 11-year civil war that ended more than two decades ago and its population of 8 million people is among the poorest in the world. Neighboring Guinea remains politically unstable after a coup in 2021.

Kemo Cham, The Associated Press