The Media Foundation for West Africa welcomes the release of Hawa Hunt, from two months’ incarceration and the dropping of all charges against the social media influencer by a Court of Appeal in Freetown.
Hunt, who is also a reality TV Star was freed from detention on March 4, 2025 by the Court of Appeal and cleared of all the cybercrime related charges against her.
The police arrested her on December 23, 2024 while she was on air, participating in a reality TV programme. Hunt was arrested a day after the First Lady paid a visit to the show. This sequence of events fuelled speculation that her visit might have been a reconnaissance mission to prepare the grounds for the arrest.
The arrest was reportedly linked to critical comments she made about President Bio and First Lady Fatima Bio in a viral video on social media. That video goes back to April 2024 when Sierra Leone was holding elections.
The popular activist with over a 100,000 followers on social media, had since been standing trial on two counts under the Cybersecurity and Crime Act 2021 (Act No. 7 of 2021) and the Public Order Act. Prosecutors claim her video incited public disorder and damaged the reputation of President and his wife. The first family, however, publicly denied being behind the prosecution.
Presiding over the case on March 4, Justice Tonia Bernett not only discharged Hunt, whose requests for bail had been repeatedly rejected, but also ordered the immediate return of her Canadian and Sierra Leonean passports which had been confiscated as part of legal proceedings.
Incidentally, the acquittal came just days after the First Lady, Fatima Bio publicly appealed for her release in a video statement released on social media to mark the start of Ramadan.
While the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) joins the Sierra Leonean public and freedom of expression rights organisations to welcome Hawa Hunt’s freedom, we are deeply concerned about her unjust arrest and detention in the first place. The entire episode is as a manipulation of the law to attack free speech in Sierra Leone. We believe a country that has decriminalized libel should not be prosecuting a citizen for alleged derogatory remarks about public figures.
We identify with the Lawyers’ Society of Sierra Leone’s public condemnation of the act as “a political influence on the Justice System,” and call on the President of Sierra Leone to investigate the incident if indeed the First Family did not lodge any formal complaint against Hunt.
