By Sulaiman Jalloh

In the ongoing court-martial case at the High Court of Sierra Leone, one of the twenty-seven accused serving soldiers of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces, Alhaji Koroma, has pleaded guilty to nine of eighty-eight counts levied against him and his colleagues.

Koroma pleaded guilty to counts 1, 2, 10, 11,18,30,40, 42 and 50; ranging from mutiny to communicating with the enemy. He said the reason for his guilt, just after the reading of the offenses, was that he wanted not to waste the court’s time.

On Monday, January, 8th 2024, a pre-trial/hearing session was done where 88 charges were not read due to the absence of one of the accused soldiers’ reasoning due to his poor health condition according to a defense counsel.

The case was adjourned to Friday, 12, January, 2024.

About fifty-two witnesses are expected to testify in the court-martial trial of the twenty-seven indicted serving military officers.

The officers are said to have involved in last year’s November 26 security incident which the State said was an attempt to overthrow the President Julius Maada Bio government. On 26th November, 2023, a group of persons attacked the Wilberforce Military Barracks, the Central Prison and some police stations in Freetown, causing panic, release of prisoners and deaths.