Sierra Leone indicts ex-president Koroma over foiled coup in November

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Sierra Leone’s ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma has been charged with treason as part of investigations into a failed military attempt to topple the West African country’s government in November, a court in the capital Freetown said on Wednesday.

Gunmen attacked military barracks, a prison and other locations in Sierra Leone on Nov. 26, freeing about 2,200 inmates and killing more than 20 people.

Authorities said later that it was a foiled coup led mostly by Koroma’s bodyguards. They summoned the ex-president for questioning at the start of December.

The charges were read out to the former president while he stood in the dock and some of his supporters cried in the courtroom.