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A medical worker listens as UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-Moon gives a speech during his visit to an Ebola treatment unit
in Freetown on December 19, 2014 ©Evan Schneider (UN/AFP)
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A village chief has become the first person in
Sierra Leone to be jailed under laws aimed at preventing the spread of the
Ebola virus, court officials and lawyers said. Amadu Kargbo was sentenced to
six months in jail by a court in the southwestern city of Moyamba for secretly
burying the dead and failing to report a sick patient, court official Foday
Fofanah, AFP reports.
Apart from the sentence, Kargbo was also fined one million leones (US$235)
and ordered to spend 21 days in quarantine before going to jail.
Lawyers in the capital Freetown said it was the
first known conviction under the country's Ebola laws.
Fofanah said the chief had pleaded guilty to
secretly burying his daughter, who had died of Ebola.
He added that Kargbo's wife had also died after
attending the funeral of another family member, although it was not clear if
any of the charges related to his wife's death and burial.
Ebola has killed more than 7,300 people, almost
all of them in West Africa and Sierra Leone recently overtook Liberia as the
country with the highest number of Ebola infections.
Authorities have banned
public gatherings as well as New Year celebrations as part of sweeping efforts
to stem the spread of the virus.
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