editor
A former Sierra Leonean president has been granted permission to travel abroad on medical grounds despite facing treason charges.
The High Court ruling comes amid speculation that Ernest Bai Koroma has agreed to go into exile in Nigeria if charges against him were dropped.
Koroma, 70, was charged early this month with four offences for his alleged role in a failed military attempt to topple the West African country’s government in November.
He was accused of treason and other offences over a failed coup last November, in which some 20 people died.
The ex-president, who has been under house arrest, will be allowed to travel to Nigeria for no more than three months, the magistrate said before adjourning the case to March 6.
Koroma, who ruled between 2007 and 2018, denies these allegations.
Anonymous sources from the United Nations and ECOWAS disclosed that ECOWAS had brokered a deal for Mr Koroma to go into exile in Nigeria if the charges were dropped.
On November 26, gunmen launched a series of attacks in Sierra Leone, breaking into a key armoury, military barracks and prisons, freeing about 2,200 inmates. More than 20 people were killed in the violence.
Additional Source,BBC, Aljazeera
