British court turns down Sankoh habeas corpus

A court in London has turned down a writ of habeas corpus brought by the wife of Foday Sankoh, to force the British government to reveal where the ex-leader of Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has been detained, PANA reported. In her court action, Fatou Sankoh claimed her husbnand, detained since May, was in the hands of the British, but this was denied by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as well as the Ministry of Defence, PANA said. The judge ruled that Sankoh was not under the control of the British government since he was not being held by the British armed forces and that Britain was not in a position to make Sierra Leone’s government reveal where he was.