Former Sierra Leonean vice president and 2007 unsuccessful presidential candidate Solomon Berewa has died at the age of 81 in a hospital in Freetown, his party, which has been in power since 2018, said Friday. national funeral.
A renowned jurist, he led the government delegation during the peace process which enabled this poor West African country to emerge from a decade of civil war (1991-2002). He was Minister of Justice from 1996 to 2002, with a brief hiatus during the installation of a ruling junta from 1997 to 1998.
Become vice-president of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, he was nominated candidate of the Party of the people of Sierra Leone (SLPP) for the presidential of 2007, but he was beaten in the second round by the opponent Ernest Bai Koroma. The SLPP paid tribute to him in these terms: " A giant of peace and stability has fallen, a dean of justice and the rule of law is gone forever ".
Critics point out that Solomon Berewa presided in 1998, as Minister of Justice, over the execution, in public on a beach near Freetown, of 24 high-ranking military personnel, including a woman and two former ministers, convicted of to have collaborated with the junta.
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