Sierra Leone’s former deputy ambassador to the UN and until a few months ago head of the Independent Media Commission, has been taken into custody on allegations of corruption. Ambassador Allieu Kanu was among nine people arrested by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) at the US embassy in a joint operation investigating what is alleged to be a racketeering ring in the sale of service passports to people not in government service and sending them abroad often as phony members of government delegations. A source at the ACC alleges that he was receiving thousands of dollars to facilitate the issuance of visas to people travelling to the US using the illegally-acquired passports and under the pretext of working for his Institute for International Law. He cannot be reached for his reaction to the allegations because he is under arrest.
