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Yeabu Zainab Sheriff, chairperson of the Wi Duti Movement, has taken her case to the High Court to challenge a four-year prison sentence, as the government seeks to prevent the appeal from being heard.
Sheriff was convicted on 14 April 2026 at Magistrate Court No. 1 on Pademba Road by Principal Magistrate Mustapha Brima-Jah. She received four years in jail for incitement – defined as encouraging people to commit a serious crime and two months for using threatening language, to run concurrently. She is currently held at the Sierra Leone Female Correctional Centre in New England.
The case stems from a speech Sheriff delivered on 31 January 2026 at the Brima Attouga Mini Stadium in Cline Town during a political rally organized by the All People’s Congress (APC). The speech, filmed and widely shared on social media, was delivered in Krio and addressed electoral fraud. In it, Sheriff said that anyone who rigs an election against the people of Sierra Leone should not only be killed, but that their mother, father, children, and entire bloodline should also be killed. She added that “that is how Foday Sankoh was acting” and that anyone who rigs an election should be treated in the same way. The magistrate ruled that these words amounted to incitement to murder and threatening language.
Sheriff’s lawyers filed an appeal containing 19 grounds. They argue that the magistrate’s court lacked the proper jurisdiction to try her, that the charges were not clearly stated, that rules of fair trial were breached, and that the four-year sentence was excessive for a first-time offender with no previous record.
When the appeal came before Justice Mark-Negegba on Wednesday, 10 June 2026, the government’s lawyer, Mr. I. Thorlie from the Law Officers’ Department, raised a preliminary objection. He argued that the appeal papers are defective because they do not properly explain the original magistrate’s judgment, as required by 1969 court rules, and asked the judge to throw out the entire appeal without considering Sheriff’s arguments.
Sheriff’s lawyer, Mr. Rowland Wright, opposed the objection. He said the government had not followed the correct procedure to raise it and that the rules do not compel the court to dismiss the appeal for this reason.
After hearing both sides, Justice Mark-Negegba adjourned the matter. He will deliver a ruling on Wednesday, 18 June 2026, on whether the appeal can proceed or should be struck out.
If the government’s objection succeeds, none of Sheriff’s 19 grounds will be considered by the court and she will remain in prison. If the objection fails, the High Court will hear the full appeal and decide whether her conviction and four-year sentence should stand.
