By Umaru Fofana
FREETOWN (Reuters) – Samura Kamara, an opposition front-runner for Sierra Leone’s 2023 presidential election, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to corruption charges brought against him and five other officials.
The plea follows their indictment in November by the anti-corruption commission on various counts of graft involving $4.2 million meant for the renovation of Sierra Leone’s chancery building in New York. Kamara was foreign minister at the time of the alleged wrongdoing.
Kamara was the presidential candidate for the now opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party in the 2018 election, and is their presumed candidate for the 2023 vote.
There was a heavy security presence around the court in central Freetown and at strategic points in the city over the government’s concerns that Kamara’s supporters might accompany him to court and be disruptive.
The other officials indicted include the head of chancery and the former and current financial attachés at Sierra Leone’s mission to the United Nations in New York.
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Editing by Alessandra Prentice and Grant McCool)
