One of the private bodyguards of a leading Sierra Leone newspaper publisher and civil rights activist has been discharged and set free by the Law Courts following some five months of him being remanded in custody for alleged ‘conspiracy to commit armed robbery’. Kalilu Jalloh was found not to have a case to answer and was released in the morning of yesterday Wednesday February 3rd 2010 by the presiding Magistrate. Until his release yesterday, he had been in prison from last October without any bail.

Jalloh, a former Kamajor with a clean police record and no history of lawlessness, has since been given a six weeks vacation by his Boss in order to allow him spend time with his ailing father up in Moyamba. Kalilu Jalloh is expected to resume his security duties back in Freetown sometime in March or April.

Meanwhile, his family members are contemplating on what legal steps to take against those who used their media outlets to whip up public disaffection against the young man. It will be recalled that President Koroma’s Press Secretary had used his private newspaper to whip up public disaffection against Kalilu Jalloh and also tried to link his boss, the famous Sylvia Olayinka Blyden to the alleged armed robbery conspiracy.

Blyden, whose fearless criticisms of the excesses of the regime have been severally referred to as one of the current bulwarks of the country’s developing democratic culture, has made no comments so far but is widely believed to be working on developing an unprecedented legal brief to cover both this and other related issues. The legal brief that Sylvia Blyden is working on, is expected to set a precedent that will act as a deterrent of similar recurrences that might wish to be implemented in the future by other regime despots.

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