Sierra Leone: Corruption trial of opposition leader Samura Kamara begins

The trial of Samura Kamara, presidential candidate of Sierra Leone's main opposition party, resumed Monday in Free Town. Samura Kamara, leader of the All People's Congress, is currently on trial for corruption. If convicted, he will be barred from running for office or holding public office.

"The High Court judge, honourable justice Adrian Fisher, gave an order... and what was that order? The order was to move the court to New York -- what we call locus in quo visits. What actual informed that visit? There were conflicting evidence before the court during the trial. And Mr. A was saying this and Mr. B was saying this so the judge ordered that in order to ascertain the veracity of that information, the court should go and inspect the Chancery building in New York in the USA so we have conducted the inspection, we are done. Today, we are here to listen to the reports. The court will present the reports to Sierra Leoneans. The reason why we went there is because this is a public interest matter, we are talking about an allegation of 4.9 million USD."

Since December 2021, Samura Kamara has been on trial for allegedly embezzling public funds from a consulate renovation project in New York during his time as head of diplomacy.

Samura Kamara is seen as the main rival to current President Julius Maada Bio.