Sierra Leone court orders opposition leader’s arrest for suspected graft

Sierra Leone’s Court of Appeal has ordered the arrest of the opposition candidate who was runner-up in presidential elections this year for suspected corruption linked to the sale of government shares in a mining company, it said in a statement.
Samuel Kamara was the candidate for the opposition All People’s Congress Party (APC) in 2018 and in June.
He was indicted in 2021 for alleged graft involving a separate matter when he was foreign minister. The trial is ongoing and he denies wrongdoing.
The Court of Appeal on Tuesday ordered Kamara to be arrested and handed over to the anti-corruption commission for questioning over a “shady” deal involving the 2012 sale of government shares in a local mining company, Sierra Rutile Limited. Kamara was finance minister at the time.
His legal team had appealed against the commission’s accusations, citing lack of evidence. But judges dismissed the appeal, saying there was no documentation on the sale and that the former government was not aware of it.