After 19 days of prison detention, Managing Editor and Editor of the Independent Observer newspaper Messers, Jonathan Leigh and Bai Bai Sesay were granted bail on November 4, 2013 by a Freetown-Based High Court.
The granting of bail to the journalists followed a series of joint protests and appeals by the MFWA and Sierra Leone Journalists Association (SLAJ) that the two be granted bail and their rights respected.
The
two journalists were admitted to bail bonds valued at 500 million Leone
(about US$114,000) each. As part of the bail conditions, they were also
required to have two sureties one of whom must own a house in the upper
class suburb called the Western Area. Additionally, the house owner
must also deposit the property title with the Registrar of the court.
The two journalists have also been asked to surrender their travelling
documents to the authorities.
