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The Sierra Leone government has set free 10 people accused of murdering policemen and razing the Kamakwie Police station during the 2022 August 10 insurrection.
“Take notice that in Executive of the power vested in me, by Section 66 (4) (c) and (5) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, Act No. 6 of 1991, I hereby authorise State Counsel Joseph A K Sesay to discontinue the above matter against the accused persons,” the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Osman Kanu said in a note to the presiding judge in Makeni.
The DPP clarified that he was directed to make the decision while stating that all 10 be discharged of their offences.
The 10 individuals were arrested following the aftermath of the 2022 August 10 and have been in police custody since then. Protesters went to the streets on August 10 in 2022 calling for the resignation of President Julius Maada Bio.
What was supposed to be a simple protest turned into a full-blown chaos leading to the death of close to 30 people and security forces in Freetown and other paths of the country. Properties worth millions of Leones were razed by the angry protesters with some stores looted and pillaged.
The government blamed the main opposition, the All People’s Congress (APC) for initiating the riots but the APC distanced the party from the protest.
Police later made several arrests after investigations were launched.
An agreement in October 2023, months after the country’s controversial polls in June that year, the two major political parties, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the APC came to an agreement for all political prisoners to be released.
