JAILING OF DAVID TAM BAYOH IN SIERRA LEONE

Motion Text

That this House condemns the jailing and beating of the campaigning radio journalist David Tam Bayoh in Sierra Leone, who criticised the Sierra Leonean government's Ebola response; notes that the country's state of emergency empowers President Ernest Bai Koroma to arrest any person without a court order and that Bayoh was arrested by an order signed by the President; further notes that Bayoh, who suffers from high blood pressure, is detained without charge in a hugely overcrowded jail; points out that around a third of the amount pledged by the EU to Sierra Leone to combat Ebola will come from the UK's £205 million aid package; and urges the Government to use its considerable influence with Sierra Leone to free Bayoh so that he and other journalists are free to work and keep track of the hundreds of millions in aid pouring into a country which ranks near the top of global corruption indexes.