By Mabinty M. Kamara
Following protests by civil society groups, the Sierra Leone government finally released Liberian activist Henry Costa.
Mr Costa was on a transit en route the United States when he was detained for three hours by immigration officers on Wednesday.
Following his detention, civil society activists condemned the government, calling for his immediate release.
Costa is the leader of the Council Of Patriots (COP), a pressure group that has been a very vocal critic of President George Weah’s government.
Though the reason for his arrest in Sierra Leone was unclear, the civil society groups believe that the order for the activist’s arrest could have come from Liberia, where the COP recently staged protests against the government’s handling of the country’s state of affairs.
“We urge the government of Sierra Leone to immediately release Mr. Costa and allow him to travel to the United State of America or his preferred destination. We further urge the government of Sierra Leone to reject any extradition request from the Liberian government as we are reliably informed that if extradited to Liberia, Mr. Costa will be severely tortured by the Weah administration,” reads a joint statement from the CSOs on Wednesday.
It continues: “As of now, we are not aware of any charges being preferred by the Liberian government against Mr. Costa, and we believe that the only reason the government of Liberia is pursuing him is because of his leadership role on the 30th December 2019 nationwide protest in Liberia. We believe that Mr. Costa’s right to demonstrate is guaranteed under both Liberian and international laws, and we strongly condemn the Liberian government’s attempts to punish him for exercising his rights.”
Costa was later released by immigration officials in Lungi. He left Sierra Leone early on Thursday morning to continue his trip to the US.
Minister of Information, Mohamed Rahman Swaray, told Politico on Thursday that the most important thing now was that Costa was released after his detention.
“The most important thing now is the fact that Costa has been released and that he was never maltreated whiles in detention which he himself attested to in a Facebook post,” Swaray said, after been asked about the reason for the detention of the activist.
“What they did was just a security check which is common especially for a refugee,” the Minister added.
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