Eight people have been arbitrarily detained by a Presidential order under the State of Emergency powers in Sierra Leone for over three months following an alleged riot concerning a suspected Ebola patient in October 2014.
Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma signed an Executive Detention Order against 34 Kono residents using his powers under the State of Emergency on 24 October 2014. The 34 were arrested for allegedly taking part in a riot in Kono District when the family of a local politician’s 90-year-old grandmother refused to let health authorities take her for an Ebola test. It has been reported that two people may have been shot dead by the police during the riot but to date no one has been arrested for the killings. Twenty-six of the detainees were later released.
For over three months, two women have been detained at the Female Correctional Centre in the capital, Freetown, and six men have been detained at the maximum-security prison on Pademba Road, some eight hours drive away from their homes. They were not informed of the reason for their arrest and have been denied their right to challenge the lawfulness of the detention. So far, they have not been interviewed by the police or any judicial authority and have no documentation regarding their release date.
The police have refused to investigate the detention as they claim to have no faculty since it was under an Executive Order. A women’s rights organization, AdvocAid, wrote to the President on 9 January requesting the release of the two women, as provided under the Constitution. However, they have received no response. The Constitution provides that if a request for release is refused by the President, an independent tribunal must be set up within 30 days to review the refusal.