By Ralph Sesay
The Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. General Brima Sesay, and other senior authorities of the Ministry of Defence, has said in Freetown that the court martial escapee, Captain Edwin Kamara, will be tried in absentia.
It will be recalled that Captain Edwin Kamara and two others were subjects of a court martial trial involving the missing of a quantum of ammunition valued at USD80, 040.30 an equivalent of L683,419,550 (six hundred and eighty three million, four hundred and nineteen thousand, five hundred and fifty leones).
The trial has been going on for almost a year now and military sources say Captain Kamara’s escape came a day after his defence team had requested for an adjournment of the proceedings. The defence and prosecution teams were expected to make their final address on the day of Kamara’s escape.
Captain Edwin Kamara and the two others involved in the trial were key members of former President Koroma’s security detail between January, 2008 and June, 2018.
He was believed to have escaped from the tightly guarded custodian center at Wilberforce, west of Freetown, in the early hours of the 21st May, 2019. Authorities at MOD told newsmen that seven military personnel, including a Major, one staff sergeant, two sergeants and two lance corporals are helping the Sierra Leone Police with circumstances surrounding the captain’s escape from detention.
The Deputy Defence Minister disclosed that the escape of Captain Edwin Kamara has provided the Military high command with opportunities to enhance their Standard Operating Procedures, revisiting security arrangements at Defence headquarters and also reviewing deployment and contingency planning in Freetown.
The Head of Legal Affairs at the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces stated that military authorities have done all procedural actions since the escape of the captain. Since he is still a serving member of the RSLAF he has been put on absent without leave (AWOL).
The trial of Captain Kamara and two others have generated different opinions from people across the political divide and many believe that the trial was politically motivated, as it had largely targeted bodyguards of the former President.